Like Broken Glass
by NightingaleTear
Summary: A double homicide causes a jurisdiction nightmare for the NYPD, the Boston PD and NCIS. Will Beckett, Jane and Ziva and their teams manage to work together despite their personal issues and solve this case before more lives are lost? Multiple x-over. Expect appearances from Castle, Rizzoli&Isles, NCIS and NCIS:LA.
1. Prologue

**Summary:** A double homicide causes a jurisdiction nightmare for the NYPD, the Boston PD and NCIS. Will Beckett, Jane and Ziva and their teams manage to work together despite their personal issues and solve this case before more lives are lost? Multiple x-over. Expect appearances from Castle, Rizzoli&Isles, NCIS and NCIS:LA.

**Author's Note:** This story deals with four different TV shows. So here's a note on the timeline: The _NCIS_ storyline is set after episode 10x12 _Shiva_ – _NCIS:LA_ after episode 3x22 _Neighborhood Watch_ – _Castle_ somewhere in Season 5, post 5x14 _Reality Star Struck_ but pre 5x15 _Target_ – and last but not least, _Rizzoli & Isles_ also somewhere in the first half of Season 3 around episodes 3x07 _Crazy For You_ and 3x08 _Cuts Like a Knife_.

Now, I know that doesn't fit together chronologically, but I'm writing this purely for the fun of it and I hope you'll enjoy.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything. No copyright infringement intended.

* * *

**Like Broken Glass**

**Prologue**

Kate Beckett was having one of the worst days of her life and that was to say something. She spent the early morning hours in the bathroom, staring at nothing in particular, because she was afraid of a teeny tiny little stick. When the precinct called about a new homicide case, Kate almost dropped her phone into the toilet bowl in her hurry to answer it. After taking note of the exact location where her new murder victim or apparently victims awaited her, she went about the business of trying to sneak out of Castle's loft without waking him or running into Martha. At least, she didn't need to worry about Alexis, too.

Once Kate had reached her car, she felt relief of some sort. But the rush hour traffic quickly did away with that. Having lived in New York almost her entire life, Kate was well accustomed to the streets of the city and knew that driving in them was sometimes like running the gauntlet. Ever since she had been a rookie, she had gotten used to it at the latest, but today she just didn't have the necessary patience.

Since she wasn't making much headway and she was practically driving right past it, Kate decided to stop at her apartment to change into new clothes. Back at Castle's loft she hadn't dared to go through the stuff she had deposited at his place for fear of waking him.

Eventually, Kate reached her crime scene, though, but so did Castle. Apparently, he had woken up once she had left, figured out that there must have been a murder somewhere, called Ryan for the details and taken a cab. Needless to say that he was annoyed with her for not telling him. But that only caused Kate to hurry up to reach that yellow police tape that separated her crime scene from the curious bystanders. It seemed to promise a safe haven to her right now. Considering how much her morning had sucked already, Kate operated under the assumption that it couldn't get any worse.

Unfortunately, she was wrong. Kate had been to hundreds of crime scenes and they more or less all looked the same. But not today.

Today there were more people there than usual and not just outside, but inside her crime scene, which would have been a red flag for Kate even under the best of circumstances. And this day slipped more and more in the direction of the worst.

"Hey Espo, who the hell are these people?" Kate asked the Hispanic detective once she reached him.

Esposito didn't look exactly thrilled either. "Hey, I was just about to call you. Apparently, we have some company."

Usually, Kate would have waited for more information, but she saw that one of the unknown persons was about to touch one of her dead bodies. Immediately, Kate took a couple of steps forward. "Excuse me, this is a NYPD crime scene. I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Considering her mood, Kate thought that to be positively polite.

A woman in a suit and with dark curly hair straightened up and looked her squarely in the eye. "Are you the detective in charge here?" she asked.

Kate suppressed a frown and nodded. "Yes, Detective Kate Beckett."

"I'm Detective Jane Rizzoli. Boston PD. This is Dr. Maura Isles, our ME." She pointed to a woman who was dressed like she was going out on a date after this. "We're here to take over this investigation."

Kate had expected a lot of things, but this was taking it too far. "I'm sorry, Detective, but this is not Boston. This is New York, which makes this my crime scene. So either you leave now or I'll have to charge you with tampering with an official NYPD investigation."

"You can spare me the obstruction of justice crap, okay? This is my partner," Rizzoli replied heatedly, pointing to one of the victims, "which makes this my case and I don't give a damn about which city this is."

"Please excuse her choice of words. We've only just been informed a couple of hours ago," Dr. Isles suddenly interjected in a voice that was surprisingly gentle in comparison to Rizzoli's.

Kate was still considering whether the news that this was a personal loss for Rizzoli would be sufficient to excuse her cowboyish attitude, when somebody else approached her from the side.

"Excuse me, ladies." It was a rather good-looking man in his thirties, wearing a black cap and jacket that practically screamed 'federal agent' at Kate. "But since you don't seem to be on the same page about this case, you might want to consider simply giving it to us."

"And who the hell are you?" Kate asked before Rizzoli could beat her to it.

"Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo, NCIS."

"Who?" Kate asked, not even bothering to hide her annoyance.

DiNozzo looked a little exasperated, but not surprised at the question. But Dr. Isles spared him the need to answer. "It stands for Naval Criminal Investigative Service."

DiNozzo raised his eyebrows at her. "Wow, I'm impressed."

"Thank you, I recently read an article about…"

"Maura!" Rizzoli snapped to shut the woman up.

Kate used that opportunity to get the conversation back on track. "Navy? Are you kidding me? What would you want with my crime scene?" She couldn't resist emphasizing the possessive pronoun a little more than strictly necessary.

A woman with the same work attire as DiNozzo but more exotic looks came to stand next to him. "Because fingerprints identify the second victim as Petty Officer First Class Adam Umar," she answered Kate's question, presenting her with something that looked like a portable AFIS scanner.

Kate gritted her teeth. She hated federal agencies and what Castle would refer to as their 'super-cool toys'.

Ryan appeared next to the female NCIS agent and looked apologetically at Kate. "We also found IDs on both victims that further confirm their identities."

Castle had been surprisingly quiet so far, probably still sulking, but now he couldn't resist pitching in. "So, we have a dead cop from Boston and a dead sailor murdered in the city of New York, which means this falls in the jurisdiction of three different departments? Wow, this could be awkward."

Kate closed her eyes for a second. This was not awkward. This was her own personal nightmare. God, how much she hated this day and it was only 9 a.m.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Jane had just been in pursuit of a suspect when something woke her up. At first, she thought it might be Joe Friday who was licking her toes again, but once the sleepiness started to fade a little, Jane realized that someone was knocking on her door.

"Go away," she muttered into her pillow, sensing instinctively that it was too early to get up. She wasn't even on call today.

To her mute satisfaction, the knocking did indeed stop and Jane sank back into her mattress, feeling that she might just be able to catch that perp from her dream if she closed her eyes now and went right back to sleep.

So when a cold hand suddenly touched her bare shoulder, Jane instantly jerked awake – her cop instincts kick-starting and telling her to grab whoever had broken into her apartment and to wrestle him to the ground.

She could only just stop herself when she recognized her intruder. "Maura! What the hell are you doing here?"

Her best friend smiled innocently. "I knocked, but you didn't open up."

"Yes, because I'm still sleeping." Jane moaned and sank back into her pillows. Maura, however, seemed unperturbed by that. She walked towards her window and opened the curtains. Jane shielded her eyes against the morning light. "How did you even get in here?"

"I used the spare key you gave me."

Jane raised her eyebrows. "For emergencies, Maura. I gave you that key for emergencies only."

"Well, it was an emergency," Maura replied. "My knocking seems to have woken up one of your neighbors and he kept looking out the door to stare at my gluteus maximus."

"Your…" Jane repeated, but then decided not to go there. "Well, perhaps that has something to do with the way you dress your… booty," she said instead, eyeing the stiletto high heels, narrow skirt and blouse Maura was wearing, not to mention her perfect, honey-colored hair. "Seriously, Maura, who looks like that before 7 a.m. in the morning?"

"I'll take that as a compliment," Maura replied with a defiant smile and sat on the edge of her bed. "Anyway, I've got something for you."

"Two more hours of sleep?" Jane suggested.

Maura smiled and shook her head. "No, even though scientists have confirmed that the human body functions best when it gets approximately eight hours of sleep every night. But I think since today is a special day, we can make an exception."

Jane frowned. "Oh, don't tell me it's my birthday again. I hate birthdays."

"No, you told me you that only hate the disappointment that you associate with your birthday," Maura corrected her gently. "But no, it's not you birthday."

"Then what is it, Maura?" Jane asked, not at all sure she really wanted to know.

Maura rose from the bed. "I'll show you in the living room," she said and left the room again.

Jane sighed and tried not to be curious, so that she could just stay in bed and wait until Maura would leave again. This special day her friend had referred to was probably nothing more than the invention of something with an incredibly complicated Latin name she had never even heard of before. But when Maura began to move around in her kitchen, Jane surrendered to the inevitable. She took a quick shower and then put on some slacks and a Boston PD T-shirt without even bothering to tame her mass of black, curly hair.

When she entered her living-room, two cups of coffee sat waiting on her kitchen counter. "That's it? And you wonder why I have a problem with disappointment," Jane commented that with a smirk.

"No, that's just to stimulate your metabolism," Maura replied, once again making Jane wonder whether she really couldn't detect sarcasm or simply chose not to. "_This_ is what I have for you," she continued, though, and placed an elegantly gift-wrapped package on the counter.

Jane put down her coffee mug. "Maura, what is this? What is going on here?"

"Just go ahead and open it," Maura replied.

Now actually more than just a little curious, Jane unwrapped a box that after opening the lid revealed a gun that was obviously an antique. While Jane carefully lifted it out of the box to admire it, Maura confirmed her first assessment. "It's a Remington Double Deringer, caliber .41. It belonged to Bernard McGinniskin, the first Irish-born Boston Police Officer to be appointed in 1851."

"Wow… that's… I don't know what to say, Maura. This must be worth at least three grand!" Jane put the gun back in the box and stared at her friend in amazement.

"Yes, well, today happens to be the anniversary of your graduation from the police academy and you told me once that that's the only date you really care about because from that day on you felt like you knew what you were doing with your life. And I'm sure all the families you've helped to reach closure would support me in giving you this as thanks for the choice you made back then."

As a detective Jane preferred to be in control of every situation and it was part of her nature to analyze every person she was dealing with and to try to guess their next move. Usually, she was pretty good, too. But Maura Isles proved to be an exception. There was something about her sometimes painfully honest and very often quite annoyingly smart, but also surprisingly gentle and supportive manner that always managed to catch Jane by surprise. It was no different today. Jane actually had to blink a couple of times because she certainly didn't want to start crying. God, no.

But she got up and walked around the kitchen counter to give her friend a hug. "Thanks, Maura, that's really sweet." Once Jane let go of her again, she was met by Maura's open smile, but, glancing at the way too expensive collector's gun, she said, "But this is way too much. I can't possibly accept this."

"Of course you can. Even though most of my money is tied up in sensible investments, I assure you that I am more than able to afford this and I want you to have it," Maura insisted.

"You're sure you still have enough to buy yourself shoes and stuff like that?" Jane asked jokingly.

Maura laughed. "Yes."

"Well, okay then," Jane said, but when she looked at her newly acquired treasure, her cop senses still couldn't give it a rest. Her gut kept telling her that there was something here she kept missing.

Before she could continue that internal debate, Maura's cell phone started ringing. She glanced at the caller ID and then let it go to voicemail.

Jane frowned. "You could have taken that, you know."

"No, that's alright," Maura replied offhandedly.

But Jane's gut was practically screaming at her by now. "Maura, are you okay?" she asked.

Maura nodded. "Yes, I'm fine." But she had barely said that when she seemed to reconsider it already. Jane knew that her friend couldn't lie even if her life depended on it, so she simply waited. "Well, actually, there is something I wanted to talk to you about…"

But she didn't get any further because there was another knock on the door. Jane sighed. "Hold that thought, okay? Perhaps it's my neighbor and he wants to ask me for your number," she added with a smirk.

Maura made a face, but when Jane opened the door, it wasn't her neighbor, even though Jane suddenly almost wished it would be. "Ma, what are you doing here?"

Angela Rizzoli didn't bother to wait to be invited in. She just pecked her daughter on the cheek and pushed past her into the apartment. "Good morning, Janie. I came to make you bunny pancakes."

"Bunny pancakes?" Jane repeated incredulously while her mother added a cheerful "Hello Maura," before explaining,

"Yes, you told me I couldn't make those for you at work anymore, so I'll have to make them here. Unless of course, you think that I'd be embarrassing you in front of Dr. Isles as well." Her mother used her You-don't-appreciate-what-I'm-doing-for-you kind of voice that Jane knew only too well, so she just closed the door with a sigh.

"I'm a female cop, Ma. Ears and a smiley face on my food do not exactly help to inspire confidence in me among my co-workers."

"I think it's sweet," Maura said, which caused Jane to throw her a 'traitor' look, but Maura only smiled and shrugged.

Jane's mother meanwhile noticed her gift. "What is this?" she asked with a disapproving frown on her face.

"That's an antique gun, Ma," Jane pointed out the obvious. "Maura gave it to me."

"Oh, well," her mother hesitated. She probably didn't want to be rude to Maura, who was basically giving her a place to live. "Does it have to lie there on the counter? I'm sure that's not very sanitary."

"Nobody asked you to cook, Ma," Jane reminded her, but knowing that there was no point in arguing, she put the box aside – and with it most likely the chance to learn what Maura had actually come to talk about. But Maura didn't seem very upset about that, but since that wasn't really in her nature anyway, that wasn't saying much.

The ship had definitely sailed when there was another knock on Jane's door and her younger brother Frankie waltzed into her apartment as well. "Hey, is it take-over-Jane's-apartment day or what?" she protested in vain.

"You know I always have breakfast with Ma after coming off the night shift," Frankie only offered as an explanation and sat down at her counter.

"Yeah, is he getting bunny pancakes, too?" Jane teased.

"Why do you always have to be so aggressive, Jane?" her mother complained with that I-can't-believe-I-raised-you look.

But Jane was saved by the bell when her phone chose that particular moment to start ringing. She signaled her mother and brother to continue arguing without her and picked up the call. "Rizzoli."

There was a short pause on the other end. _"Hey Jane, it's me, Korsak."_

"Hey Vince. What's up?" Jane asked, trying not to sound too worried. But she knew her former partner well enough to recognize from his voice that something was off. Plus, she wasn't on call today, so it had to be important for Korsak to call her anyway. Jane met Maura's gaze across the room and her friend raised her eyebrows in a mute question, but Jane only shrugged.

"_It's Frost,"_ was all Korsak managed to reply at first, but it was enough to make Jane feel as if a cold hand was twisting her guts, even before he added, _"I'm so sorry, Jane, but he's dead."_

"What?" It was all Jane could do to hold on to her phone.

"Jane?" Maura came to stand next to her now and put a soothing hand on her arm.

But Jane stayed focused on the impossibility of the news she had just been given. "What the hell is that supposed to mean – he's dead?"

Korsak sighed heavily on the other hand while Maura's eyes became huge with worry and Jane could feel her mother and Frankie watching her as well. _"I don't know much more than you do, Jane. The precinct just got a call from an NYPD patrol officer who apparently found Frost's dead body in an alley and after spotting his badge, didn't just call it in, but also had the courtesy to give us a heads-up."_

Jane's head was spinning and she was suddenly very grateful for Maura's steadying hand. "Wait a minute! NYPD as in New York? Why the hell would he be in New York?"

"_I don't know, Jane. I really don't know."_ Korsak sounded defeated. Even though he and Frost had pulled each other's leg at every opportunity, the young detective had grown on him. As he had on everyone.

So Jane desperately searched for a way out of this. "Perhaps it's not even him. I mean, how can we be sure?"

"_Well, I guess they'll need someone to go down there for a positive ID, but if they found his badge…"_

"Oh, I'll do more than just ID him," Jane interrupted her older friend. "I'll go down there and find out what the hell happened and if that's really him, I swear to God I'll get the son of a bitch who did this!"

"_Woah, Jane, he's not on our turf anymore. Strictly speaking, NYPD's got jurisdiction,"_ Korsak reminded her.

But Jane was way too angry to listen. "To hell with jurisdiction! He was one of us, Vince, we have a goddamn right to investigate this and you know that!"

There was another short pause. _"Okay, I'll talk to Cavanaugh. Perhaps he can call the NYPD commissioner and you better get on the next plane. We got lucky that that officer called us right away. Perhaps you can manage to get to the crime scene not that much later than whatever detective the NYPD will assign to this. I'll text you the address. And once you're on the scene, well, good luck to whomever wants to kick you out again."_

A small smile appeared on Jane's lips. "Thanks, Vince. Appreciate it."

"_Just take care of yourself. And Jane? You better get that bastard!"_

"Count on it," Jane promised him with icy determination in her voice and hung up. When she looked up, she saw three anxious pairs of eyes fixed on her. "I'm sorry, Ma, but I'll have to skip those pancakes." Weirdly enough, that was the first thing that came to Jane's mind.

Maura gently squeezed her arm. "Jane, what's going on?"

Reluctantly, Jane met her friend's gaze. "Frost is dead."

Maura inhaled sharply and covered her mouth with her hand. Her mother dropped the cooking spoon she had been holding and stared at her in shock. Frankie rose from his chair and he looked like a bull that was ready to charge, but had no target.

"Oh my God, Jane, I'm so sorry," Maura finally managed to say.

"Yes, that's so terrible!" her mother added, fighting against tears and rushing towards her to give her a hug.

But Jane quickly took a couple of steps back. "No hugging, Ma! I don't have time for this now." She did feel the pain of losing her partner building inside of her, but right now it was contained by her anger and determination to get to New York to find out what was going on and – a small voice in her head added – whether it really was Frost.

Frankie, being a cop himself, understood. "What can we do, Jane?" was all he asked.

"Go to the precinct and help Korsak. He'll try to talk to Cavanaugh. But if the NYPD cops won't cooperate, I'll need you to work the computers and stuff on this end for me."

Frankie nodded without hesitation and headed for the door. He only stopped to put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry, sis," he said before leaving.

"You're going to New York?" her mother asked, looking both worried and surprised.

"I have to, Ma. I owe him this." Jane was trying to figure out what she needed to take with her while all she really wanted to do was to get going, when she remembered the most important thing of all. In a hurry, she turned to her best friend again. "Will you come with me, Maura? I know this is asking a lot because I can't even promise you that the NYPD will let you touch his body and they could very well sue us for interfering, but you're the only one I trust and…"

"Jane," Maura took her hand and put a stop to her babbling. "Of course I'm coming with you. We just have to stop at my place so I can get my bag."

Jane allowed herself a short pause to take a deep breath and to smile at her friend. "Thank you."

If it had been up to her, Jane would have grabbed only her gun and badge and walked out of the door. But both Maura and her mother convinced her to take some time to change into clothes that called for a little more respect and also to pack some things in case they'd be staying in New York for a few days. Jane had little patience for all this, but with the help of Ma and Maura she didn't lose too much time.

After a short stop at Maura's place where they also left Jane's mother, who insisted on hugging both of them after all, they got to the airport. Once more Jane's badge proved itself worthwhile when it allowed them to fast-track all the security checks and other obstacles, so that they managed to get on the next flight to New York in record time.

The flight took only about an hour, but Jane could hardly sit still and it felt like an eternity to her. At JFK they lost a little more time because the security officers there were slightly more reluctant to accept Jane's Boston PD ID as an all access pass. But Korsak came through and texted her the address of the crime scene. His message also said that Cavanaugh was on their side, but couldn't promise any willingness to cooperate from the NYPD. Jane didn't really care either way. When she and Maura finally got into a cab, Jane almost yelled at the driver and told him to step on it. But the cabby seemed used to being treated like that.

Once they had reached their destination, Jane immediately spotted the yellow police tape and cursed. "Dammit, they already got to it." Well, it probably had been ridiculous to hope that they could get to a crime scene in a foreign city before the cops in charge did.

"Well, perhaps you could just try talking to them," Maura suggested. "They are police men and women who have partners, too. They might understand."

Jane scanned the alley ahead of her. She saw a couple of officers, guarding the scene, but only two guys in suits who looked like they might be actual detectives, but neither looked like the one in charge to Jane. Perhaps they were just in time, after all. She gave Maura a nod and they headed towards the police line.

One of the officers stopped them. "I'm sorry, this is a crime scene. I can't let you through here."

_First moment of truth_, Jane thought. "I'm Detective Jane Rizzoli," she said, showing him her badge. "That in there is my partner."

The officer took in her badge and her fierce expression and after a moment of hesitation, he waved them through.

"See, that wasn't so hard," Maura commented that.

"Yeah, well, you're about to witness my gumshoe thing at work. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Better wait and see whether those guys over there have got some balls," Jane replied, already eyeing the Hispanic looking man who approached them now. She decided that the best defense was a good offense and didn't even wait for him to say something. "Hey, you in charge here?" she asked him.

"I'm Detective Esposito. May I ask who you two are?"

"Dr. Maura Isles; Detective Jane Rizzoli, Boston PD. One of the… victims seems to be my partner."

Esposito actually looked sympathetic. "I'm sorry. You're here to ID him?"

Jane was about to tell him that she was here to get justice for Frost, but Maura grabbed her arm and said, "Yes, yes we are."

Esposito nodded, but he still seemed a little uncomfortable with the idea of letting them near the dead body, which confirmed Jane's hunch that he was not the detective in charge. But Jane didn't give a damn whether he would get into trouble or not.

She turned towards the dead body, only to realize that there were actually two, but only one of them was black. But suddenly Jane hesitated. Once she would confirm Frost's identity, she would also have to face the cold, irrevocable reality of his death.

"It's okay, Jane," Maura whispered.

"Thanks. For coming with me," Jane replied, looking at her.

Maura smiled sadly. "You're welcome, my friend."

Jane took a deep breath and approached the body. Her heart sank and she closed her eyes for a second when she recognized the lifeless hull that was left of her partner. "Oh Frost. What did you do?" she whispered and fought against the sadness that threatened to engulf her. This was not the time or the place.

"Looks like a gunshot wound that ruptured his pericardium," Maura said, kneeling next to her.

Jane was about to ask her to dial back on the science talk for once because she didn't have the time to catch up, when she heard movement behind her. She spotted a woman with long brown hair, who seemed to get a report from Esposito and looked like she was the one in charge everyone had been waiting for. She was trailed by a guy who, judging by his couple hundred dollar suit and wavy hair, was certainly no cop.

"Time for round three," Jane muttered.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo was willing the elevator to go faster. He wasn't usually the first one at work because he figured that was more befitting of a Probie like McGee and there was no beating the Boss anyway. Sometimes Tony wondered whether Gibbs was sleeping at all between his time at work and his nocturnal boat building sessions in his basement. Either way, today Tony had a good reason to show up early.

Today was Ziva's first day back at work after her time in Israel to bury her father Eli David. She had been gone for more than a week, which was understandable and still didn't seem like enough time to get over such a profound loss. So yeah, Tony hated to admit it to himself and he certainly wouldn't have said it out loud, but he was nervous. A bit. A teeny tiny bit, really.

First of all, there was the question of how Ziva was doing, of course. Just because she had buried her father didn't mean that she had stopped hurting. The next issue on his how-to-deal-with-your-coworker/friend/whatever-mig ht-be-beyond-that list was how to actually approach the topic of Ziva's possible hurting. Tony had tried to help her and to be there for her when she had stayed in his apartment (and slept in his bed, which he had imagined more than just a couple of times, but then in reality had turned out not quite how he had thought it would). But that night Ziva had pushed him away, only to make the first move and to hug him before leaving for Israel the next day.

Man, that girl really was a piece of work. But then, Tony had always liked that about her, only now… now vaguely disturbing thoughts about life and what he wanted to do with the time he got left kept popping up in his head every now and then. And once he tried to figure out how those kinds of thoughts might be connected to Ziva, he really started getting headaches.

If it were up to him, he would just go back to hugging her, like when they'd said goodbye on the airport. Tony would hold her in his arms or do whatever it was that Ziva wanted, really. He really thought he was ready. Well, maybe. But the bigger question was whether Ziva thought he was. At the airport, he had told her that she was not alone (or at least, Tony feverishly hoped he had said that – Hebrew was one heck of a difficult language). Ziva had acknowledged that with an 'I know' and a sad smile. But what exactly did that mean for them now?

To his enormous surprise, Tony was not the first one to get to work, after all. In fact, the squad room was practically stuffed with people, and it took Tony less than a second to realize whose idea that had been. Ziva's desk was kind of a giveaway. Ziva herself wasn't there yet, but her workplace was decorated with colorful balloons, paper streamers, smiley faces and a huge 'Welcome back' sign. The only possible perpetrator behind all this stood right next to the mistreated desk and admired her handiwork.

"Abby, what the hell is all this?" Tony asked bluntly once he had reached her.

Usually, he knew better than to be mean to Abby because there were only two possible but equally unpleasant outcomes: A. Gibbs would beat you to a pulp with a baseball bat or B. Abby would kill you herself and make sure that there was no forensic evidence to be found whatsoever. But this time the happy Goth had really crossed the line and Tony couldn't help himself.

But Abby didn't really take him seriously, anyway. "What? I just thought Ziva should know how happy we are that she's coming back today."

"Yah, from burying her father," Tony reminded her.

"Relax, Tony," Ducky interjected. "I already tried to convince her to tone it down a bit, but you know Abby and so does Ziva. She will understand."

"I actually think it's pretty cool," Palmer added with one of his geeky grins. "I'd love to be greeted like this…"

Tony gritted his teeth. "Yeah, well, nobody asked you, autopsy gremlin."

"Oh come on, Tony," McGee pitched in as well. "Perhaps it will make Ziva smile a little."

"Et tu, McBrute?" was all Tony replied to that. Okay, if he was really honest with himself, it wasn't just that he thought this to be inappropriate. He was also a little annoyed that Abby had ruined his plan of being the first and only one to greet Ziva upon her return. Fine, perhaps more than just a little. "Okay, I see you're ganging up on me. That's fine. But don't come running to me when this ends badly, and by badly I mean…" Tony had been about to turn around as if to leave, but instead collided with Gibbs.

"You got a problem, DiNozzo?" his Boss asked, pinning him down with that Gibbs stare of his.

Tony dropped his backpack. "No, everything's great, Boss."

"Good." Gibbs headed towards his desk, but at the same time the elevator doors pinged and opened to reveal the one they'd all been waiting for.

Ziva stopped in surprise when she saw all those eyes focused on her, standing next to the confetti explosion that had once been her desk. But she didn't get to say anything because Abby quickly ran towards her to pull her into one of her famous hugs. "Ziva!"

To Tony's slight dismay, Ziva actually did smile a little. Dammit, Abby really could get away with anything.

The bubbly forensic specialist took Ziva's hand and led her towards the rest of the group, who took turns greeting her.

"Good to have you back, my dear," Ducky said while giving her a gentler version of Abby's embrace.

"Thank you, Ducky." Ziva's voice was soft, but stable.

Palmer only managed a nervous handshake with a 'Hello Ziva' and McGee followed suit, but with a warm 'Great to have you back, Ziva'.

"'Bout time," was everything Gibbs said, but everyone knew that he was more of a 'actions speak louder than words' type of guy. The way he pulled Ziva into his arms and – perhaps even more important – the way Ziva let herself be held and her entire body language relaxed for a second, really did say more than anything else.

Weirdly enough, Tony felt a twinge of jealousy. It wasn't that he begrudged Ziva her relationship with Gibbs. Hell, the guy was almost like a father to him as well. No, he was only envious of the easiness between them; the way Gibbs held her in his arms as if it came naturally to him – which it probably did.

Even though Tony had held Ziva in his arms as well only recently, he didn't feel like he could just do it again. So when Ziva turned towards him because he was the only one left, they just stood there facing each other for a second. "Hey there, looking good," finally escaped Tony's mouth.

"Thank you, Tony," Ziva replied just as flatly. "Thank all of you. This… would not have been necessary."

"Of course it was, Ziva," Abby contradicted her. "Our family is not complete without you."

Ziva only smiled, but it was that sad smile again – the one which said that Abby had just accidentally reminded her of how very incomplete her biological family was by now.

Gibbs seemed to notice as well that this was on the verge of becoming too much for Ziva, because he clapped his hands and said, "Hey, don't you all have some work to do now?"

Everyone murmured acknowledgements and Ducky and Palmer were the first to head back to autopsy. Abby gave Ziva another hug before leaving as well.

Ziva turned towards her desk and took in all the balloons and stuff. "I could take care of that for you if you like," McGee offered.

"Thanks, McGee. I did not want to be rude to Abby, but…"

"Yeah, I know. She went a little overboard again. But she's just really happy to see you. We all are."

"I know," Ziva said and smiled – at McHelpful of all people!

But while McGee started to clear the desk, Ziva set down her backpack and then silently left in the direction of the break room. Tony realized that this might be the only chance he'd get, so he stopped hesitating and followed her.

The break room was otherwise empty and Ziva was leaning against one of the vending machines, her eyes closed. Tony took advantage of that and studied her for a moment. Ziva was wearing tight jeans and a black blouse with the sleeves rolled up. Her beautiful dark brown hair was in her favorite high ponytail again and her entire appearance was nothing but professional. But at the same time it was guarded, really just a façade to hide whatever was going on inside. It certainly wasn't the loose, happy, and fun-to-be-around-with Ziva who drove him crazy with her maltreatment of American idioms and at the same time amazed him with her sharp wit and unexpected humor.

Tony sighed and entered the room. Ziva's eyes immediately snapped open again and watched how he walked towards her. "So, how was Israel?" he asked.

"Hot," Ziva replied curtly.

"Yeah, I remember that part," Tony said and after a short pause decided to just go for it. "So we're not going to talk about it?"

Ziva looked at him and it wasn't exactly inviting. "Talk about what, Tony?"

Still he held her gaze. "About the funeral? About how you're doing?"

"I'm fine, Tony," she said and looked away again.

"Yeah, you say that a lot. Doesn't make it easier to believe you, though."

"Well, that is your problem then, Tony, not mine." Ziva's voice was icy now and she moved as if to walk away.

Tony quickly reached for her arm to stop her, but just as quickly let go again. "Come on, Ziva, I thought we were past this."

Ziva stopped, but still looked reluctant. "Past what, Tony?"

"Pretending," he said, sounding deadly serious, even to himself.

For about a second they looked at each other with such intensity that Tony thought everything might be possible, but then he could practically see how Ziva was pulling back again. "I am not pretending, Tony. I am moving on with my life. There is nothing else to say."

Tony realized that he was losing her and that there was no point in pushing her to talk about her father. But there was something else he was concerned about, something he couldn't just let go. "Okay, then let's talk about what else you did in Israel."

"What are you talking about, Tony?" Ziva asked, now beginning to sound irritated.

"You know damn well what I'm talking about or rather _whom_. Don't tell me you didn't go looking for Ilan Bodnar."

"So what if I did?"

"So did you find him?"

Ziva's eyes got dark. "If I had, he would be dead by now, Tony."

"Yah, or _you_ would be," Tony corrected her grimly.

"That would still have been worth it," Ziva replied just as grimly.

"See, that's where we have to agree to disagree. I get that you want justice for what happened. So do we. But you can't just sacrifice everything for that, your career, your life!"

Ziva's eyes flashed with fury. "Tony, he was deputy director of Mossad. He made my father trust him, pretended to be like a son and then he had him killed!"

"And I promise you that we'll get him for that. For you and for Director Vance and his family. We'll get you justice, but only when the time is right!" Tony couldn't help slightly raising his voice at well.

"And what if the time will never be right, Tony? Ilan killed my father! There is only one choice for me now! But it's still _my _choice and _my_ life. What gives _you_ the right to tell me what to do with it?"

Tony stared at her, but the words seemed to get caught in his throat. This was so not going according to plan – which might have to do with the fact that he'd never really had a plan.

But before he could try to think of something, Gibbs appeared in the doorway. "Hey, you planning on getting back to work any time soon?"

Tony cringed. "Um, of course. Sorry, Boss. Where are we going?"

"New York."

That was so unexpected that Tony and Ziva exchanged a surprised look. "As in 'if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere', Boss?"

Gibbs apparently didn't deem that worthy of a direct response. "Got a call that local police found a dead Petty Officer. Since our office in New York is currently understaffed, I'm sending you two."

"Gibbs, I would rather go with…" Ziva began.

"Now!" Gibbs interrupted her.

In a hurry they left the break room to grab their gear and to get ready to leave the Navy Yard, while Tony tried not to take Ziva's attempt to be partnered with McGee too personal, except that it was. What the hell had happened since she had hugged him on that airfield?

Well, she had buried her father and hunted for his killer, apparently in vain. Obviously, that was a lot to deal with and under any other circumstances Tony could have given her time, perhaps even space, but not if he had to worry that Ziva might take off on some crazed quest for revenge that might get her suspended or thrown into jail or, worst of all, killed. But apparently, he needed to change tactics because if trying to talk to her meant pushing her further away, he was getting nowhere.

So, on their way to Andrews Air Force Base, Tony tried to get back onto common ground. "Well, a trip to the Big Apple – paid in full by the Navy – I could imagine a worse start into a new week," he said, glancing at Ziva in hope of a response.

Ziva, who was driving because Tony was more concerned about sucking up to her than about his life right now, kept looking straight ahead, but she said, "We are not going sightseeing, Tony."

"Ah, but that's the beauty of the Big Apple. There's a fundamental piece of American culture everywhere you look."

Ziva frowned. "I have never understood why everybody gets so excited about this city or why they call it that. It bears absolutely no resemblance to a fruit."

Tony couldn't help but smile when he heard that familiar I-will-never-understand-Americans tone of voice that Ziva still hadn't abandoned, even though technically, she was American herself now. "Ah, Ziva, Ziva, you have to stop taking everything so literally. Sometimes the beauty of things depends on your imagination. Imagine… strolling through Central Park, waiting to meet the love of your life like Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in _You've got mail,_ or jumping from the Empire State Building to be saved by Spiderman, or simply driving a cab like Robert De Niro in the 1976 classic _Taxi Driver_…"

They entered the Air Force base and Ziva hit the brakes. "Okay, I get it, Tony. They made a lot of movies in New York."

While they got out of the car and into the already waiting cargo jet that would drop them off in New York, Tony protested, "Well, it doesn't sound very exciting if you put it like that."

"That's because it is not supposed to be exciting or fun. This is work and somebody died, Tony," Ziva replied.

Tony used the time during take-off to wonder whether she had referred to her father, but then decided that she had probably only been talking about the dead sailor, so he said, "But that still doesn't mean that I can't try to make a smile appear on that beautiful face of yours, Zee-vah."

She looked at him with a perfect poker face on. "Then I hope you have a better plan than just to quote movies."

Tony raised his eyebrows. "Ziva David, was that a challenge? Because you know how much I hate to lose."

"So do I, Tony. But I've learned that life rarely cares about what it is that you want." The look in her eyes made it clear that now they were indeed back to the topic of her father's death.

"Well, then you might just be in for a surprise," Tony replied. _Because I'll be damned if I ever let you get hurt again._

For about a second Ziva looked as if she had read his thoughts, but then she just leaned back on the rather uncomfortable cargo bench they were sitting. "We'll see."

The remaining flight was relatively short and Tony mostly kept his mouth shut in order not to ruin whatever progress he had just made. Once they had reached New York and their crime scene and Tony saw all those detectives standing around there, including some very fine female specimen, he couldn't help joking, "Wow, I never knew New Yorker crime scenes had so much going for them."

Ziva rolled her eyes. "Don't get your hopes up, Tony. I doubt they'll be very welcoming since you're here to take over their case."

"Ah, you just let me handle it, Zee-vah."


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"Tell me again why you get to pick the movie." Kate sat on the couch in Castle's loft and watched him rummaging about in his kitchen.

Castle paused for a second to answer. "I told you, if you pick a really bad movie, you lose your turn. And _Valentine's Day_… I'm sorry but you can't just put a whole bunch of Hollywood celebrities in front of the camera without anything that even resembles a sensible plot and call that a movie. So, anyway, those are the rules. Everybody knows that and we agreed."

"You mean, you and Espo agreed on that," Kate corrected.

"Yes, so?"

Kate raised her eyebrows. "So would you rather spend the night with him?"

Castle looked at her with those puppy dog eyes of his, like he always did to err on the side of caution whenever he wasn't entirely sure whether she was actually mad or just messing with him.

"Oh come on, I promise you'll like the movie I picked. Plus, I'll throw in a homemade Ice Cream Sundae." And he finally presented the result of all his rummaging when he placed a gigantic bowl of ice cream on the kitchen counter.

"Fine," Kate conceded, slowly letting him off the hook. "But you better hurry and get your butt over here before I change my mind."

Castle grinned, grabbed the Sundae and two spoons and did as he was told. The movie he had picked turned out to be _The Killer_, the John Woo movie they had originally planned to watch on that fateful evening that had instead turned into their very first night together.

"So?" Castle asked with a triumphant smile on his face, knowing full well that he had scored.

Kate decided to give credit where credit was due and leaned in to give him a soft kiss. "That's sweet, Castle."

"And the best part is, there's more where that came from," he replied with a grin and offered her a spoonful of ice cream.

Kate allowed Castle to feed her while her hand rested on his thigh and slowly moved upwards. When she took him in her hand and squeezed gently, Castle gave a sudden start and retaliated by shoving an especially huge chunk of ice cream into her mouth. Kate tried to swallow all of that and made the mistake of glancing at the gory bloodbath that enfolded on the TV screen at the same time. Even though Kate usually didn't mind all that blood in movies because she got to see the real thing every day, she was suddenly overcome by a wave of nausea that was so intense that it made her jump to her feet and run to the bathroom.

"Kate?" Castle's concerned voice followed her, but Kate was too busy relieving herself of all that ice cream and everything else she had eaten today to answer. "Kate." His voice was closer now, following her into the bathroom.

Kate flushed the toilet and slumped next to the bowl. "Go away, Castle. I'm sure this is not how you imagined this evening to turn out."

"Don't be ridiculous," Castle dismissed her. "Here, have some water." He took the cup in which he kept his (and by now also her) toothbrush, filled it to the brim with water and gave it to her.

Due to the rancid taste in her mouth Kate was not too proud to take it and gulped it down eagerly. That turned out to be her second mistake. "Oh no," was all she could get out before she had to hang her head over the toilet bowl again. This time, Castle gently swept her hair out of the way. When she was done, Kate slumped back down, shaking a little and feeling awful.

"God, I'm sorry, Kate. Come here," Castle said and reached out for her quivering body.

Kate tried to hold him off. "No, just go, Castle. This is so not sexy."

Castle scowled at her. "Screw sexy. You're sick because I fed you with ice cream and now I'm going to hold you until you're feeling better." And without allowing further protest he pulled her onto his lap and enclosed her in his arms.

His warm body and the firm grip of his hands really did feel good and helped to soothe her nerves, so Kate gave in and rested her head against his chest. They just sat like that on his bathroom floor for she didn't know how long. Finally, Kate said, "I'm sorry, Castle. I'm sure you had high hopes for tonight after you picked that movie and all."

Castle gently caressed her cheek and shushed her. "Stop apologizing. This is actually much better than sex."

That statement had Kate raise her head so she could look at him with her eyebrows raised. "Excuse me?"

"Okay, in retrospect I realize that might have sounded a little weird," Castle admitted, looking sheepish. "I mean, sex is great. I love sex – with you, that is," he added quickly. "But this is good, too. Just being here, holding you. I love the sex, but mostly I just love you."

Kate felt another weird sensation spreading inside of her, but this time it had nothing to do with having to puke. If at all, it was more like not being able to breathe because she felt inadequate to respond to so much adoration and love. It always seemed to come so natural to Castle. After all, he had been the first to confess his feelings, twice actually, and yes, Kate had made the final move, but only after Castle had already laid out all the cards, and still she'd almost needed to die to finally get a clue. Sometimes Kate thought he deserved better.

Even now her first instinct was to kiss him instead of responding to his openness in the same way, but since Castle had just seen her puke, kissing didn't seem as romantic as usual. So she went for the alternative he had invented for them and offered him her hand. "I would kiss you, but even though you can make sitting on the bathroom floor next to the toilet almost kind of romantic, it really is pretty gross…"

But Castle ignored her hand and interrupted her by bending down to kiss her himself. "I told you," he said after letting go of her lips again. "I love all of you, Kate."

"Okay," was all she could think of as a response. "So, can we get up now?"

Castle frowned, probably going for a stern doctor face. "Are you feeling better?"

"Yes."

"Okay then." Castle got up and helped her to her feet as well.

"Would you give me a minute?" Kate asked, intending to rinse her mouth and freshen up a bit, and even though Castle's 'through the good and bad times' talk was still making her feel weak in the knees, she did prefer some privacy just now.

Castle understood and nodded. "Sure, shall I go rewind the movie or would you like me to show you how much I enjoy the sex with you – despite all this mushy talk?"

Kate just stared at him.

"Too inappropriate since you just puked your guts out?" Castle guessed.

"Kind of."

"Yah, I figured. So movie it is." Castle smiled at her and left towards the living room.

Kate closed the door and turned the faucet on to splash her face with cold water. While the cool drops of water ran down her face, she straightened up and looked into the mirror. Castle had caught her off guard with his not only very grown up (or mostly grown up) but also incredibly sweet reaction to her nasty condition, and that had totally distracted her for a while. But now that she was alone, the huge significance of what had happened hit her with even greater force.

Because what Castle didn't know was that this had not been the first time that Kate had been sick within the last couple of days and a nagging suspicion bugged her and with each time proved a little harder to be silenced. By now however, it was rather unlikely that it had been the ice cream or the gory movie or a come-and-go stomach bug and much more likely that it was something else – something that Kate was unable to accept. And yet again she realized what a coward she really was. She was running again – even though she was now at a point in her life where she had told herself that she was done – and what was worse, she was running from something she stood no chance of getting away from.

Kate gripped the sink with both hands, took a deep breath and made a decision. After checking Castle's medicine cabinet, she went back into the living room. "I might not be feeling that much better, after all. Would you mind running to the drugstore to get me something?"

Castle looked up from the couch, both surprised and instantly worried, because he knew as well as she did that such a request was not like her. But then it was also a request he couldn't refuse. He got to his feet right away. "Of course, you just sit down and um… perhaps I could also make you a cup of tea or… get you to the hospital?"

Despite everything, Kate couldn't help laughing. She closed the distance between them and put her hands on his shoulders. "I have a stomach flu, Castle. I'm not dying."

"Oh, okay," he said and turned as if to leave before hesitating again. "You're sure?"

Kate leaned in to give him a reassuring kiss. She was calm for now. She had made a decision, which really wasn't much of a decision and more of a postponement. But either way, she had a mission now and as a cop she had been trained to keep a cool head until it was successfully completed. "Yes, I'm sure."

Castle still seemed a little unsettled because in four and a half years he had seen her broken and almost shot to death, but never sick. Still he grabbed his coat and his keys and left. Kate waited until she thought that he should have made it out of the apartment building before leaving as well. Knowing Castle, he would take a cab and go for some overpriced pharmacy where he would spend way too much money on a bunch of medicine that sounded as if it might cure her.

Kate on the other hand knew a little drugstore right around the corner and that was all she really needed. She got in and out in just a couple of minutes with just a short hesitation when she had found the right aisle, due to a raging battle inside of her. But in the end, Kate bought what she had come for and returned to the loft with probably lots of extra time to spare. Or so she had thought. She had barely gotten rid of her coat, however, when the door was opened again and Martha walked in.

In her panic, Kate stuffed her bag from the drugstore under the couch cushions.

"Ah, Kate, darling, how are you?" Martha greeted her with her usual demeanor of theatrical grandeur.

Mindful of her cover story, Kate replied, "I'm fine. Just seem to have contracted some sort of stomach bug. Castle's gone to the drugstore. But it's really nothing."

Martha frowned at her. "Oh dear, that doesn't sound good."

"No, it's fine, really," Kate insisted.

"Are you sure? You seem a little… flustered."

Kate couldn't help but stare at Castle's mother. She was a cop, dammit, how could she not pull this off good enough to convince that woman?

Martha seemed to read her mind. "Ah, you see, when you get to a certain age, you learn to see certain things. But I don't want to pry. If you need someone to talk, dear, you know where to find me."

_This family will be the death of me_, Kate thought, but she also felt something warming her from inside again. "Thanks, Martha."

The redhead just smiled at her and headed upstairs. Once Kate heard the door to her room close, she hurried to find a new hiding place for her purchase and then sat down again to wait for Castle. He really did return with two big paper backs full of colorful boxes with pills and syrups, and Kate had a hard time convincing him that he didn't need to watch her take all of those in front of him. Afterwards they settled down to finish watching the movie and it could have been very nice – the way Kate was nestled against Castle's chest and he had covered them both with a blanket – but really Kate had a hard time concentrating.

When they went to bed, she was desperate enough to go for the only thing she could think of that might be powerful enough to distract her, but Castle reached for her hand and stopped it on top of his chest.

"Nope, doctor's orders were rest and I'm sorry but sex with me is so not restful," he said.

Kate sighed. "You are a really bad nurse, you know that right?"

Castle grinned. "Oh, there are so many ways I could respond to that, but in the interest of you getting some rest, I will have you know that I am an excellent nurse. I always nursed Alexis back to health in no time. You'll see. Tomorrow you'll be feeling better already." He gave her a kiss and since he looked happier again and less worried, Kate only smiled and feverishly hoped that Castle might be right.

But in her heart of hearts she knew that nothing about this would be any different tomorrow. So sleep was pretty hard to come by for her that night and when the first morning light made its way through the window and the bedside clock told her that it was just past 5 a.m., Kate gave up and got out of bed.

At first, she went back into the living room with no clear idea of what to do, but then she spotted some of the left-over food and a sudden craving made her eat all of it, which yet again caused her to end up sitting near the toilet bowl in Castle's bathroom. So now there was no more running. Now she had to stick with the decision she had made yesterday, which was that if she experienced another attack of morning sickness – she could just as well call it that – she would take the damn test. So Kate got up, got the bag and peed on that stick.

So far, so good. But once the time that she was supposed to wait was up, Kate couldn't move to check the result. It was so ridiculous that a grown woman was afraid of a teeny tiny little stick, but Kate couldn't help herself. She wasn't just afraid, she was terrified. As a cop Kate lived every day with the knowledge that some perp might end her life, but she had never thought that an inanimate object, lying there on a sink, would be the one to ruin it. It was entirely unfair.

She had only just begun to get her life back together. She had taken a huge step in accepting her Mom's murder by letting go of that ill-advised hunt for her killer. Of course she still yearned for justice and she would take Senator Bracken down at some point, but in the right way and at the right time. Instead, she had finally let Castle into her life and her heart and God she was so ridiculously happy, probably for the first time ever since her mother's death. They were just good together and Castle was fun, and sweet, and caring, and whether she was ready to say it out loud or not, she loved that man like nothing else in her life right now.

But as good as they were together, they were only good as a couple. They were not ready for a family. Kate had only just given him a drawer at her place for Valentine 's Day, for God's sake! Plus, she was pretty sure that Castle didn't even want any more kids and why would he? His kid was already all grown up and perfect. There was no competing with Alexis, and Kate had never even wanted to go there. Or had she?

She had never thought about kids while she had still been hunting for her Mom's killer because how could she be a Mom to anyone while she was still mourning the loss of her own? And also she had never been with the right guy. Now things were kind of different, but not nearly different enough. She still had her job, which she loved, and Senator Bracken was still out there, and she still knew absolutely nothing about raising kids. This was simply a ginormous joke at her expense. Castle probably didn't want any more kids, which was one of the most certain reasons for a break-up, and then she would be stuck with a kid, unable to decide herself whether she wanted to have it or not.

So Kate just sat there on the floor for hours until her cell phone rang and she was out of time. After she had taken a note of the location of her new crime scene, she put her phone away, gritted her teeth and just grabbed that stupid stick.

_God, please be negative_, Kate thought one last time before opening her eyes and being met by that teeny tiny red plus sign. For a second there, Kate's eyes stung with tears, but she didn't have any more time for self pity. She had a new murder to solve and since those seemed to be numbered from now on, it was all the more important to get it right.

In a state of weird numbness, Kate snuck out of the apartment, tried to make her way through traffic, gave up for a stop at her own apartment, and then part of her wasn't even surprised that Castle still caught up with her before she had even actually set foot on her new crime scene.

"Hey, why did you just sneak out this morning?" he asked as soon as he reached her.

Kate sighed. "You were still sleeping. I didn't want to wake you," she replied in a feeble attempt at an explanation, but she needed to save all her energy for the actual case.

Castle only raised his eyebrows in response to her weak answer. "So? How long have you known me? You know that there is nothing more exhilarating for me than a good murder mystery! Or at least that's definitely more exhilarating than sleeping, which I can catch up on when I'm dead."

"Okay, yes, I'm sorry." Kate tried to walk faster to reach that yellow police line.

But Castle grabbed her arm. "Hey, wait, how are you even doing today? I mean, forget about me, but should you really be back at work?"

"I'm fine, Castle. Your drugs worked their magic," Kate replied impatiently.

"Are you sure? Because I know you. You're that type that goes back to work too early because they don't know how to relax and then… bam! … relapse."

Kate freed herself of his grip and continued to try to finally reach her crime scene. "Yeah, well, thank you, _Doctor_ Castle, but it's still my body and I'm telling you it's not in need of rest."

"Oh, okay, time-out. I sense a little tension here, so why don't we just go back to the beginning and start fresh, huh? Even though you snuck out without waking me and I had to call Ryan to find out where you were, I still managed to get us our coffee." Castle hurried over to Ryan and Esposito's car, where he had deposited the two coffee cups, and then proudly offered one to her.

Kate was about to take it when she suddenly realized that there might be reason for more careful consideration of her eating and drinking habits from now on. Great. "Thanks, but I'm not… in the mood for coffee today."

Castle looked at her as if she had slapped him. "Okay, seriously, did I do something? Because I wasn't all that serious about being mad that you didn't wake me…"

"No, Castle, it's fine. I just don't want coffee!" Kate couldn't help raising her voice a bit, but she had finally reached that yellow police tape, ducked under it and immediately got Esposito's attention.

Even though Castle was clearly not satisfied with her answer, he knew better than to interrupt their police work, so Kate could finally focus on doing what she was good at, instead of thinking about what she was failing at.

Unfortunately, when life was out to get you, it made a pretty good job of covering all the bases.


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Kate ran a hand through her hair, trying to figure out this mess. "Okay, sailor or no sailor, he was obviously involved in the murder of the second victim…"

"Frost. His name is Barry Frost," Jane interrupted her.

Kate forced herself not to throw the detective an annoyed look. "Alright, so he was involved in the murder of Detective Frost, who was not in the Navy and falls within our jurisdiction," she told the two NCIS agents.

"Actually, it's _our _jurisdiction," Jane interrupted her once more. "I already told you, he was one of our own and we don't just leave our people behind."

"I'm not asking you to leave him behind to die." Kate sympathized with Rizzoli's loss, she really did. But couldn't that woman just back off for a second, so she could get rid of those damn feds? "I'm just asking you to trust the NYPD to conduct a thorough investigation as to why he had to die."

Under different circumstances Jane might have been able to admire this Detective Beckett for her fierceness, but only if she hadn't been trying to prevent her from doing right by her partner. "Well, unfortunately, I don't trust you," she replied and just for good measure took a step closer to Beckett, invading her personal space.

With increasing worry, Maura watched how Jane went into full warrior mode. Usually, she admired that Jane was always so willing to give her everything to get justice for the victims and their families. But this time, considering that she was going against another cop, who apparently wanted the very same thing, that couldn't end well. "Jane, perhaps this is not the best way to solve this…"

But both female detectives ignored her.

_Oh, you wanna play ball?_ Kate thought and copied Rizzoli's move, almost bringing them nose to nose. _Bring it on_.

"That's your problem, not mine. But I suggest you simply take that untrusting ass of yours and get it the hell away from my crime scene!"

"Um, Beckett…" Castle interjected softly, quietly fearing that some form of caffeine withdrawal might have caused her to be especially aggressive today.

That explanation calmed him a little since it could also explain her behavior towards him this morning – which he had done nothing to deserve. But if that also resulted in Kate starting a cat fight with another detective… well, that might play out nicely (and very sexy) in his daydreams, but probably not so much in reality.

Kate was about to tell Castle to shut it, when DiNozzo butted in again.

"Ladies, ladies, I'm impressed, I am, but this is really not necessary," Tony said, unable to suppress a grin. Man, these city detectives apparently had quite a temper. "Because even though Detective Frost was not in the Navy, you already pointed out quite correctly that he was involved in the murder of our Petty Officer and I'm sorry, but NCIS investigates all deaths of United States Navy officers and that includes civilians if they get involved."

Jane tore her eyes away from Beckett to face that wanna-be agent who seemed much less impressive than the fierce New York detective. DiNozzo seemed to be one of those guys who, as a rule, treated everything as a joke, and right now Jane took that as a personal offense. "I won't give Frost to a bunch of wanna-be Navy cops either."

"You won't have a choice in the matter," Ziva said, backing Tony up.

Jane looked at the female agent who hadn't said much so far and thus hadn't made any kind of impression with her yet. "Yah, you're going to keelhaul me or what?"

"Oh, I really wouldn't provoke her if I were you," Tony interjected, fearing a disaster – because if those two crazy lady cops managed to tick Ziva off, then God help them all.

But before either woman could say something, another female voice spoke up behind him.

"Hey, what's all this?" Dr. Lanie Parish asked, surprised – and not pleasantly so – to see so many people who stood right next to her dead bodies.

Kate could see that her friend was just as instantly pissed to find so many strangers at her crime scene as she herself had been and hurried to explain, "Hey Lanie, I'm sorry about all this, but we haven't been able to secure our crime scene yet."

"Because this is not _your_ crime scene," Ziva added pointedly.

"And who ever asked for your opinion, girl?" Lanie retorted.

Tony quickly stepped between them. "Um, may I ask who you are, since we were all just so pleasantly getting to know each other?"

"That's our ME, Dr. Lanie Parish, who is here to take care of the bodies, while I don't see you having someone with you to do that," Esposito replied, showing up next to Lanie in a 'get your own gal, pal' gesture that was painfully obvious to everyone.

Including Lanie. "Thanks, Javi, but I can talk for myself, you know."

"Of course."

"All of this is not getting us anywhere," Kate said loudly before those two on-and-off lovebirds could start fighting as well.

Castle carefully raised a hand. "May I suggest something?" he asked, taking a step forward. "So we have two bodies, right? One was in the Navy and the other…" he hesitated, but then simply said, "… wasn't." _One problem at a time_, he thought. "Why don't they just take theirs and we take ours?"

Because nobody seemed willing to respond at first, Maura jumped in. "That sounds reasonable," she said.

But Jane threw her an angry look. "No, Maura, it doesn't, because with 'we' he still means only the NYPD because he's with them." Jane looked at Castle and frowned. "Even though you're clearly not a cop and I have no idea what you're even doing here."

"Well, that's none of your business now, is it?" Kate snapped, but Castle quickly raised a hand to signal her that there was no need to defend him.

"You're right. It seems I haven't introduced myself yet. I'm Richard Castle, a… consultant with the NYPD," he said, offering Jane a hand.

Jane ignored it and looked from him to Beckett and back again. "Yes, I see who you're doing your 'consulting' with."

Kate could barely believe what she had just heard, and the only reason she wasn't going for Rizzoli's throat right now was that Dr. Isles managed to pitch in,

"Wait, are you Richard Castle as in the famous crime novelist?" she asked.

Castle turned towards her with his usual broad smile reserved for fans only. "Guilty as charged."

"Oh, I have read some of your novels. Very entertaining."

"Why, thank you…"

"This is ridiculous," Ziva suddenly burst out, unable to stand this nonsense any longer. "We have a crime scene to process, Tony," she said and headed towards the dead Petty Officer to start taking pictures.

Kate, who was still beyond furious because of Rizzoli's offhand comment about her relationship with Castle, reacted instinctively, rushed forward and grabbed the female agent's wrist. "You won't be touching anything."

Ziva didn't hesitate either and swiftly twisted Beckett's hand to get her to release her. "Touch me again and I will break your hand."

"Fine." Without thinking Kate drew her gun. "But you still won't touch my crime scene."

The second Ziva saw Beckett's gun aimed at her, she also had her SIG in hand. Once Esposito and Ryan saw their colleague threatened, they, too, drew their weapons and started yelling 'Drop it'. Castle and Tony both rushed forward in an instinctive attempt to protect their partners, but were wise enough not to get in the line of fire. Jane's cop instinct also forced her to unholster her own gun, even though she didn't really know who to aim it at. Maura was tempted to cover her ears because of all the yelling, but she was too shocked.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?" a powerful voice suddenly drowned them all out.

"Detectives Beckett, Ryan and Esposito, lower your guns, IMMEDIATELY!"

Kate recognized Gates' voice and sighed, basically already kissing her badge goodbye. For a second, she therefore considered disobeying her Captain's order, but then she did as she was told and so did Ryan and Esposito. Jane and Ziva gathered that someone with the necessary authority to make a decision had arrived and followed suit.

Gates quickly walked towards them. "Now, would somebody have the courtesy to explain what the meaning of all of this is?"

"We were just trying to settle jurisdiction… Sir," Kate replied.

"Well, in case you haven't noticed, Detective, we are not in the Wild West, anymore. At least some of us have developed more sophisticated ways of settling disputes than to see who is the fastest draw."

"They started it," Castle muttered under his breath.

Gates only glanced at him angrily. "Thank you for that very grown-up contribution, Mr. Castle."

Focusing on the entire group, she said, "Anyway, I just talked to Lieutenant Cavanaugh and Director Vance and we agreed that it's in the best interest of this case that we'll combine our efforts and work together."

Kate couldn't believe what she was hearing. Were their bosses really off the streets for so long that they had no idea how impossible that plan was? "But Sir…"

"I don't want to hear it, Detective," Gates cut her short. "Strictly speaking, NCIS has jurisdiction, but since they currently don't have the resources here in New York, we will work together on this, and as a courtesy between fellow police departments we will also let Detective Rizzoli assist, so that we can all reach a common goal – namely get that son of a bitch, who thought it was okay to kill a cop, off our streets. If you have a problem with that, Detective Beckett, you may feel free to step off this case. We have enough good people working on it. Is that understood?"

Okay, Kate had probably deserved that last comment for allowing the situation to get so out of hand, but she was still annoyed with Gates' decision. "Yes, Sir."

"Anyone else have a problem with this?" Gates asked.

"No, Ma'am," Tony replied, but when he saw Gates' skewering gaze, he quickly corrected himself, "… Sir." Boy, that lady was worse than Gibbs.

"Good, then let's get to work," Gates said before turning around to leave again.

Once she was gone, nobody said anything for a couple of seconds. But since this was still their city and they had all the resources, Kate figured that she was still having the lead. "Ryan, Espo, start canvassing the area for witnesses. You…" she pointed at the female NCIS agent and would have almost added 'with the killer eyes'.

"Special Agent Ziva David," the woman introduced herself curtly.

"Right, you can take those pictures you were after. Detective Rizzoli, why don't you tell me something about your partner? And Lanie, bodies are all yours."

Kate took a deep breath and dared to hope that this might actually work somehow until Lanie suddenly snapped, "Hey, who told you that you could touch that, girl?"

Her outburst was aimed at Maura, who had knelt down next to Frost and winced at the unexpected attack. Jane immediately stepped up beside her. "Hey, back off!"

Kate followed her example and went over there to have her own ME's back. "You back off and stop attacking my people!"

"Then you tell yours to stop attacking mine!" Jane replied because it was one thing if she got dragged into this pissing match with the NYPD. Frost had been her partner. She owed him that much and she could handle it. But she wouldn't let anyone attack Maura, who had only gotten into this whole mess because of her.

Castle cleared his throat. "Ladies, didn't we agree to go for a fresh start?"

"Fine with me, as long as Maura can examine Frost's body," Jane replied.

Maura looked at her, trying to let her know that she appreciated her protection and trust, but that what they needed right now was a little more cooperation. "Perhaps we should follow your captain's suggestion and do this together. I didn't wish to interfere with your work, Dr. Parish, but Detective Frost was a friend."

Lanie and Kate exchanged a look during which they both grudgingly agreed that they would want the same thing if this were Ryan or Esposito. "Sure, let's give it a shot," Lanie decided.

"Good, I'm sure we can agree that cause of death appears to be a gunshot wound to the chest that ruptured his pericardium. His death would have been quick," Maura added more softly, looking at Jane.

"Yes, looks like a bigger caliber, .45 probably, but…" Lanie carefully rolled Frost's body on the side, while Maura helped holding him in place, "… bullet's still lodged."

"Time of death?" Kate and Jane asked simultaneously.

"Wow, see, you're already working in-sync," Castle commented that, but quickly shut up again when he saw the quite similarly annoyed looks he got from both women.

Meanwhile Lanie had checked Frost's liver temperature. "I would say between midnight and one a.m. this morning."

Kate looked at Rizzoli. "Do you have any idea what he might have been doing here in New York last night?"

Jane sighed and shook her head. "I didn't even know that he was here. He had the weekend off and all he mentioned was that he was going to meet an old friend."

"Could Petty Officer Umar be that old friend?" Kate asked, looking at the second victim.

"Frost didn't have connections to the Navy."

Maura rose to her feet again. "That's not true, Jane. His father was a Navy Admiral."

"Yeah, and they hated each other," Jane reminded her. "I don't think Frost had any Navy friends."

"Petty Officer Umar does seem unlikely as his original date last night since Detective Frost was meeting a woman," Maura said.

"Where do you get that from?" Lanie asked, checking the body for any lipstick markings she had missed.

"Well, he's wearing new clothes from a rather expensive boutique here in New York," Maura replied.

"Let me guess," Jane interrupted her. "They also have an online store and deliver to the Boston area?"

Maura smiled at her. "They do, actually, but Detective Frost didn't need them to because, apparently, he went there shopping himself before his meeting. These clothes have not been worn longer than a couple of hours. Also, he wore very strong cologne that hasn't entirely worn off yet, and around the time of his death his blood circulation seems to have been very active, including the area of his organa genitalia masculina."

"His what now?" Castle asked, a smile on his lips.

Jane met his gaze. "Trust me, you don't want to know."

"Okay, so we're looking for a woman who might have been the last one to see him alive besides the Petty Officer," Kate summed that up. "That only leaves us with about four million possible suspects, presuming that she lives in the city."

Lanie took that as her cue to move over to the second body. "Same cause of death, same caliber."

"So probably also the same killer," Castle added.

Lanie looked at him. "Very astute, Castle."

Before he could defend himself, Ziva joined them, her camera in hand. "But apparently we are missing a victim. There is another pool of blood over here," she said, leading them to it, "and a blood trail that ends where they probably had a car waiting. I also found nine millimeter shell casings that seem to be consistent with the make and model you're using." Ziva held up two golden shell casings in an evidence bag and pointed at the gun on Rizzoli's hip.

Jane took them from her to examine them and then nodded. "Yeah, could be Frost's. So he got the shooter or someone who was with him, but they got away."

"Actually, you cannot be sure that this is blood until you get a sample tested," Maura cautioned them.

Ziva frowned at her. "What else is it supposed to be?"

Jane sighed. "Just ignore her."

"But once we get it tested, we can also tell you whether this could belong to your mystery woman," Lanie mused.

"Okay, Maura," Jane said, turning towards her friend, "hypothetically, if that reddish-brown stain were to be blood, how badly do you think the person it belongs to would be injured?"

Maura chose to ignore the sarcasm and replied, "Well, it's impossible to say where the bullet would have entered, but the amount of this yet undefined substance is enough to suggest that if it is blood, the person who lost it would have needed to seek medical assistance."

Suddenly very glad that Lanie wasn't as weird as this Dr. Isles, Kate decided, "I'll have Ryan check all the emergency room reports in the area. Perhaps we get lucky."

Tony now joined them as well. "Found a couple of bullets lodged in that wall over there. Caliber .40 and .45, but no guns. Seems your Detective Frost dodged a couple of bullets before he got hit. And either Petty Officer Umar had a gun as well or we're missing more than one shooter who was involved in this."

"I'll check them both for gun shot residue once I get them back to the morgue," Lanie said.

Kate nodded. "Let me know when you've found something."

"Always do."

"Do you mind if I accompany you, Dr. Parish?" Maura asked.

Lanie didn't look thrilled, but shrugged. "Well, I certainly don't want to get my ass kicked by Captain Gates."

"Behave yourself," Kate whispered to her when she walked past her on her way to the ME truck.

Lanie raised her eyebrows at her. "Right back at ya, girl."

Maura meanwhile turned back to Jane. "I'll take good care of Detective Frost," she said.

"I know. Thank you," Jane replied with a smile. "I'll check in on you later, okay?"

"Okay, and Jane, please be nice."

"Hey, I'll play fair if they do, too," Jane replied and shrugged.

Once Lanie and Maura had made sure the bodies were safely stored away in the truck and had left towards the morgue, Ryan and Esposito came back from their canvass.

"Nobody has seen or heard anything, but we found a hotel nearby that gives out these." Ryan held up two key cards. "Both victims had one in their wallets."

"We talked to the concierge and he not only confirmed that they both stayed at the hotel, he also remembers seeing them last night. Detective Frost came back late, but turned to leave again when the Petty Officer left the hotel. He also remembers that Umar had a suitcase with him even though he hadn't checked out yet. Sounds like Frost might have been following Umar because he sensed something fishy," Esposito explained.

Kate frowned and looked at Rizzoli. "Could your partner have been working a case?"

Jane shook her head. "Not that I know of. But if Frost followed that guy, he must have picked up on something that apparently was warranted."

Feeling a little overwhelmed with the need to allocate tasks to so many different detectives, Kate nodded and hesitated for a second. Eventually, she decided to start on familiar territory. "You guys go back to the hotel and check out the rooms of our victims," she told Ryan and Esposito. "We'll head back to the precinct and work on their backgrounds." She looked at the detective from Boston and the NCIS agents and sighed inwardly. "I guess you don't have a car."

Tony immediately picked up on that. "We'll take a cab," he said, deciding that it wouldn't be wise to let Ziva ride in the same car as Beckett so soon after their stand-off. "Which precinct?"

For about a second Kate was tempted to give him a bogus destination. "12th."

Tony and Ziva grabbed their gear and Castle turned towards Rizzoli. "So you're riding with us?"

Jane still had no idea what to make of this, apparently famous, novelist who had obviously very personal reasons for hanging out with the NYPD, but she didn't want to lose time trying to hail a cab. "Guess so."

"Great," Castle replied and opened his mouth to add something, but Kate grabbed his arm and pulled him along towards her car.

"Don't you dare yell 'shotgun', Castle," she whispered, refusing to be further embarrassed in front of Detective Rizzoli.

Once the three of them had gotten into her Crown Victoria, the car was silent for a while, but with Castle around that didn't last long, of course. "So, Detective Rizzoli, your first time in the city?"

"As a matter of fact, yes."

"Well, if you need inside scoop on where to find the best restaurants or to get Broadway show tickets, don't hesitate to ask," Castle offered in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"Castle," Kate hissed. "She's here investigating the murder of her partner!"

Castle gave Rizzoli a sympathetic smile. "I know, but what better place to honor his memory than the greatest city on earth, right?"

Instead of answering that, Jane looked at Beckett. "How the hell did you get that captain of yours to sign off on his presence here?" she asked.

Kate met her gaze through the rearview mirror, and she didn't see a point in lying. "He's friends with the mayor."

"Ah, well, that explains it."

"Hey, you know I can hear you, yes?"

* * *

A/N: I've tried to keep them all realistic, but I had a lot of fun with this so I might have gotten carried away a bit. Let me know what you think :)


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Back at the precinct, they were met by many surprised looks when they returned with an unknown detective and two NCIS agents on their heels. But Kate ignored that and headed straight for Gates' office in the futile hope that her orders might have changed.

Castle meanwhile pointed out the break room to their 'guests'. "Coffee is right through there."

"Great, I've been up since six a.m.," Tony replied and entered the small precinct kitchen.

"Why did you get up so early?" Ziva asked, following him.

"Didn't want to be late for… work," Tony said hesitantly, not quite sure whether it was wise to admit how anxious he had been to see her again. Ziva still looked like she knew, but didn't say anything, so he didn't either. Instead, he gaped at the state-of-the-art cappuccino maker in front of him.

"Hey! How come these cops have a better coffee machine than we do?"

"They have superb connections to the mayor," Jane explained. She had followed the two NCIS agents since she had no better idea what to do or where to stay. She hated feeling so useless and dependant on Detective Beckett's cooperation since this wasn't her precinct.

"Figures," Tony said and studied the huge coffee machine. "And how the hell do you actually make coffee with this thing?"

Ziva joined him and tried to shove him aside. "Let me handle it, Tony."

But Tony refused to budge, so that their bodies got pressed against each other. "What makes you so sure you can do this, Zee-vah?" he asked, mockingly raising an eyebrow.

Ziva looked him straight in the eyes and tried not to be affected by the closeness of their lips. "I know how to build a bomb from whatever I would find in this room, so yes, Tony, I'm sure that I will manage to use that machine to make coffee."

Tony felt absolutely no desire to lose the feeling of Ziva's warm body pressed against his, but her voice had been a little more harsh than playful, so he backed off. "Knock yourself out."

Jane suddenly felt all the more out of place and also a little annoyed. Seriously, how could all these people be in love with their partners, and how the hell would she get anything done, surrounded by couples who had only each other on their minds?

Nevertheless, Jane thought it wise to remind those two that she was still there. "I didn't know you learned to build bombs at NCIS."

"I told you not to provoke her," Tony replied while Ziva went to work with the coffee machine.

"I did not learn that at NCIS," she explained, but kept her back turned to Rizzoli.

Still, Jane thought she remembered seeing a Star of David around the woman's neck and ventured a guess. "Mossad?"

Ziva did look at her now because she hadn't expected Rizzoli to have the guts to ask, but she quickly turned around again to make it clear that she most certainly wouldn't discuss her past. "Not anymore."

"Nope, our Ziva is living the American dream now," Tony joked, but was still glad when Detective Beckett and her novelist showed up to end the conversation.

"Ryan sent the stuff they found in the hotel rooms. I thought you could take care of the Petty Officer and we'll deal with Frost and his mystery woman," Kate suggested, since Gates had once again confirmed that she wanted them to cooperate.

Tony nodded. "Will do," he said and sipped at the coffee cup Ziva had offered him. "Man, this really is great coffee. No wonder you're so wired."

"Hey, how'd you figure out how to use that?" Castle asked, a little miffed, since he had always prided himself in being the only one in the precinct who could really do that.

"Please. We are federal agents. Give us some credit," Tony replied.

"Or," Jane said, heading back towards the bullpen and nodding into David's direction, "just give her the credit."

"Hey!" Tony yelled after her, but Jane ignored him and grabbed the laptop she identified as Frost's.

Once she had sat down, though, Castle started hovering at her side. "What?" Jane snapped.

"You're kind of sitting in my chair," Castle explained.

"Drop it, Castle. You can have my chair," Kate said, exasperated, and started filling the murder board with what they knew so far.

"Sweet," Castle said and grabbed Frost's cell phone before settling down. "There's a number here he called last and repeatedly the day of his murder. Could be his mystery date."

Kate looked up and spotted Ryan across the bullpen. "Hey, Ryan, could you check out that number?"

"Sure," the young detective replied, but stopped hesitantly when he found that Ziva had settled at his desk. "Um, sorry, Ma'am, but I need to use my computer."

Tony next to her started laughing. "Ma'am? Well, that's new."

"Jeez, Ryan, can't you just use Espo's computer?" Kate suggested, feeling more and more like she was babysitting a bunch of kids, which reminded her of something she didn't want to be reminded of.

But Ziva rose from the chair anyway. "That is not necessary. I have just pulled Petty Officer Umar's service record," she said and pinned a print-out to what she had quickly deduced served as this precinct's not yet electronic murder board.

"What are the highlights?" Beckett asked.

"The Petty Officer has no more living family to speak of and had been serving on the USS Ronald Reagan that made port in Norfolk a couple of days ago. His service record is unremarkable except for a punitive letter of reprimand for disorderly conduct and another incident where Umar received non-judicial punishment for misconduct ill-befitting of a Navy officer."

Kate sighed. "Disorderly conduct. That's Navy talk for what exactly?"

"He got into a fight with a fellow officer and reported to duty while he was drunk," Ziva explained.

Castle snorted. "Talk about 'our brave men and women in uniform'."

"Yes, well, apparently, Umar was one naughty boy," Tony said, also rising from his chair to join Ziva. "Just got off the phone with his CO, who told me that he had just filed the UA paperwork on our dear Petty Officer… meaning that he didn't actually have permission to leave the ship and come to New York."

"Yes, thank you, Agent DiNozzo, I know what unauthorized absence means," Kate replied, shaking her head.

Tony decided not to comment that. "Yeah, well, his CO also told me that they are currently investigating a break-in into one of their laboratories. Security footage connects Umar to the theft."

Jane looked up from Frost's laptop after failing to guess the right password for what felt like the umpteenth time. "What did he steal?"

"Don't know yet. CO will call me back once they've completed their inventory. But whatever it was, it could have been in that suitcase the concierge saw Umar leave with."

Kate met Rizzoli's gaze. "Seems like your partner really was onto Umar."

"But how would he have known that he was dealing with a deserter and a thief?" Castle mused. "Leaving a hotel with a suitcase is not exactly a capital offense."

"But they were staying at the same hotel. Perhaps Frost overheard something. Hopefully, we'll find something in his phone records or on his computer."

"Yo, Beckett," Esposito suddenly called and walked towards them. "Detective Frost's father is here." He nodded in the direction of a black man in a Navy uniform that was adorned with so many ribbons that Kate couldn't have failed to notice that he was way up the hierarchical ladder, even if she hadn't already known that he was an Admiral.

"Thanks, Espo," she said and as always Castle rose to accompany her, but so did Rizzoli.

"I'd like to be there," she explained.

Kate realized that she wouldn't want anyone else to tell Martha if, God forbid, anything were to happen to Castle, and nodded. "Of course. Castle you stay here. Three's a crowd," she said and walked away before he could even start protesting. Rizzoli followed her.

Even though Jane had never met Frost's Dad and had only heard from Korsak that he had been at the precinct once, the Admiral seemed to know who she was because he looked straight at her instead of Detective Beckett. "What happened to my son?" he asked.

"I'm very sorry for your loss, Admiral," Jane began, but was immediately cut short.

"I don't want your sympathy; I want to know what happened!"

Jane was a little taken aback, but quickly tried to hide it. She had known that Frost's relationship with his father had been bad because he hadn't approved of his career choice, but she still hadn't expected this. "Why don't we sit down first, Sir?" she offered because Beckett was already opening the door to a small room with a couple of cushioned seats inside.

Admiral Frost did walk inside, but he didn't sit down. "I don't want to sit, dammit; I want to know why my son is dead!"

"He was shot last night, but we're still trying to figure out why," Jane replied, fighting a growing anger inside of her.

"Well, I know why. He got shot in a gutter because he thought he had to throw away all his potential and become a cop."

Now that was simply too much for Jane. "Frost was one of the best cops I have ever known and he loved his job! And if you had ever really known your son, you would know that, too!"

Kate cleared her throat and suddenly realized that it might not have been such a good idea to allow Rizzoli in on this after all. In a way, she was family, too, even though Kate didn't know how close she had been to her partner. But at the very least, she seemed to have respected him a great deal. Still, there was no sense in picking a fight with the father.

"Sir, we have only just begun our investigation, so is there anything in your son's life you could think of that might be relevant to this case? Did he have any enemies or do you know of any old friends he might have come to meet with here in New York?" she asked.

"No… I haven't spoken to him in months," the Admiral replied and that realization seemed to humble him a bit.

Kate sensed that and softened her voice a little. "I know how difficult this is, but we have two departments and NCIS cooperating on your son's case and you will be the first to be notified when we find the one responsible for your son's death."

"Thank you," the Admiral said honestly before he excused himself.

Jane sighed when she watched him leave. "Sorry about that. You did good, though. Hardest part of the job."

"Also the most rewarding one," Kate replied before joining the others in the bullpen.

"The number Frost called belonged to a burn phone," Ryan immediately informed her.

"Dammit," Jane swore because that wouldn't get them anywhere.

"But Umar's laptop wasn't password protected," Tony reported. "He got an email confirming a meeting in that alley around the time of the murder."

"Can you trace who send that email?" Kate asked.

Tony raised his eyebrows. "Do I look like a McGeek?"

"What's a McGeek?" Castle asked.

"Ah, never mind. Mail was probably sent from an internet café somewhere. The text was too carefully phrased for the sender to be dumb enough to use his home computer."

Both Kate and Jane looked frustrated, but Castle said, "Well, that could be a good thing."

"How's that good, Castle?" Kate asked.

"Obviously, the Petty Officer was involved in some kind of clandestine plot, including theft and secret meetings in alleyways. Frost and his mystery woman probably had nothing to do with that, especially since the unidentified blood at the crime scene belongs to a man."

Kate frowned. "How do you know that?"

"Lanie called," Castle replied nonchalantly.

"Lanie? Why didn't you get me?"

"You were busy. Plus, they're only just starting with the autopsy. She just wanted to let us know that the blood doesn't match our mystery woman theory. Well, and that Dr. Isles apparently scared off Lanie's lab assistant by diagnosing him with some sort of rare congenital disease."

Jane moaned. "Oh boy, sorry about that."

But Kate was still focused on Castle. "I told you that you could have my chair, not that you could answer my phone, Castle!" she snapped at him, fully aware of the looks of varied surprise and confusion this earned her. God, she needed coffee or a break-through or both.

Nobody said anything for a while, so it was Jane who broke the silence with a triumphant 'Yes' when she finally cracked Frost's password. "Got something," she announced shortly afterwards. "Frost emailed a Sarah Newman. They wanted to meet last night in a bar called _'The Old Haunt'_."

"Hey, that's my bar!" Castle exclaimed, his surprise overpowering his brooding as to what might be going on with Kate today.

Tony looked up. "You own a bar?"

Castle nodded. "Got property on the moon, too."

"Wow, that is so cool."

"Yes, yes, could you two bond later? Whether she was involved or not, this Sarah Newman could have been the last one to see him alive, so we need to speak with her. Ryan, do you have an address?"

Ryan's fingers flew across his keyboard, but when he looked up again, there was a frown on his face. "Yah, she lives in L.A."

"Uh, great city," Tony interjected.

"Not so great memories," Ziva added, thinking of Jenny Sheppard's death that still stung because she and Tony had been her protection detail at the time.

Tony met her gaze. "Yah, well, I was talking more about the part with you in a bikini next to the pool."

Kate started rubbing her temples. "What about her bank statements? Any credit card activity?"

Ryan's frown deepened. "Very few and often months apart."

"Anything recent?"

"No hotel or ticket bookings. She must have been careful to pay those in cash. There is only one thing, a coffee order at a Starbucks this morning."

"Starbucks? Seriously?" Esposito asked.

"Perhaps she ran out of cash," Castle mused.

"Any hotels near that Starbucks?" Jane asked.

Ryan checked out a map. "Three that are relatively close."

Kate nodded, thinking along the same lines as Rizzoli. It was a bit of a Hail Mary, but if they showed the woman's picture around those hotels, perhaps they would get lucky. "Alright, let's split up."

Ryan printed out the photo from her driver's license, kept one for himself and handed one to the NCIS agents and one to Beckett.

Tony checked out the picture. The woman had a contagious smile on her lips, long brown hair and dark sensual eyes. "Well, not a bad last sight."

"Yah, she's beautiful," Castle agreed, looking at the photo in Kate's hand. When he thought he felt her piercing eyes on him, he hurried to add, "From a single man's point of view, I mean."

"Since you're all so eager to meet her, let's go and get her," Kate decided, grabbing her gun and coat.

Jane hesitated for a second, feeling like the odd one out, since she was the only one present who didn't have a partner. But eventually she decided to hitch a ride with Detectives Ryan and Esposito because they weren't a couple as well as partners, or at least, Jane feverishly hoped so.

* * *

A/N: I know not much going on in this chapter, but stick with me please :)


	7. Chapter 6

A/N: Sorry it took me a little longer this time, but I've got a couple of shorter chapters plus a longer one for you now.

* * *

**Chapter 6**

When they reached the first hotel of the three possibilities they were supposed to check out, Kate's nerves were basically fried. Since Rizzoli had decided to ride with Esposito and Ryan, she and Castle had been alone in the car, and Castle had not stopped bugging her during the entire drive.

"Castle, I've told you a hundred times, I am fine," Kate snapped when they entered the hotel lobby.

"Okay, obviously 'fine' is code here for something and I _will_ find out what it is," Castle replied in his voice reserved for intriguing mysteries.

_Yes, it's code for 'I'm pregnant and we're screwed',_ Kate almost replied, but kept her tongue in check. "Fine, you do that. Meanwhile, I will try and solve our real case."

"Ah, but you admit that there _is_ something to find out!" Castle said triumphantly.

Kate just shook her head and headed towards the desk clerk, who thankfully was male, which would increase their chances of him having noticed their suspect. Kate showed him her badge and the picture from the driver's license. "Can you tell us whether this woman is currently staying at your hotel? Her name's Sarah Newman."

The clerk looked at the picture and nodded slowly. "I think so, yes. I'll check for you." He consulted his computer. "Yes, she checked in yesterday morning. Room 317."

Kate sighed in relief. Finally it seemed that they had caught a break. "Thank you, I'll need the key card for that room." The clerk looked hesitant, but after eyeing her badge and gun, he handed it over. "Come on, Castle!"

They headed to the third floor and once they had reached the right door, Kate rested a hand on her gun holster before knocking.

"You still think she might be involved somehow?" Castle asked when he saw that.

"I don't know, but something about this woman feels weird." _Besides the fact that you find her attractive,_ Kate thought.

When nobody opened, she threw Castle a cautioning look before using the key card. She slowly moved into the room, but it was empty except for some women's clothes lying around, including the underwear, which Kate expected Castle to comment on.

But he had stayed in the doorway and now called her name in a voice that promised nothing good. "Um, Beckett!"

She turned around to him with a questioning look on her face. "I think she just came around the corner, saw me and ran."

Kate cursed, unholstered her gun and took up pursuit. Running down the stairs with Castle on her heels, she caught a glimpse of the woman's brown hair and felt a rush of excitement. They were so close to catching a break and she was not about to let that get away from her now. The woman burst through a backdoor of the hotel out into an alley, but what happened next came unexpected.

Her suspect stopped running and turned around to draw her own gun.

Kate immediately stopped as well and aimed. "NYPD!" she yelled at the same time her vis-à-vis shouted, "Federal Agent!"

Once again Kate found herself in a stand-off, but this time she was even more unwilling to believe that her counterpart was yet another agent. "Show me your badge!" she ordered.

The woman, who indeed fit the picture of Sarah Newman, snorted, while her hands, holding the gun, stayed perfectly steady. "_You_ show me your badge."

Castle, who was still breathing a little harder from the chase, edged closer. "Perhaps I could be of assistance," he said, stepped even closer to Kate and unhooked her badge from her belt.

With it in hand he walked towards the supposed agent while Kate made sure that her aim was perfect, just in case the woman got any funny ideas. But once Castle had reached her and showed her Kate's badge, she lowered her gun and reached into the back pocket of her tight jeans, giving him an ID. Castle studied it and then read, "Special Agent Kensi Blye, NCIS."

Kate lowered her gun as well, but her hands were shaking a little with anger. "What? How many of you are there? We're already cooperating with NCIS. Reinforcements were not part of that deal."

Kensi frowned. Now that she knew that she wasn't being chased by some killer squad that had uncovered her alias and come for revenge, she felt more relaxed, but she had no idea what the NYPD would want with her. "Excuse me?"

"I don't think she belongs with our Agents DaNozzo. She really is from L.A.," Castle noted now.

Kate, too, realized that something didn't quite fit here. "Either way, you were with the victim before he died. What game is NCIS playing here?"

"What game?" Kensi repeated, suddenly remembering why she didn't like cops. Well, most of them anyway. "I'm here on vacation."

Before Kate could respond to that, the Agents David and DiNozzo came hurrying into the alleyway. They had probably struck out at their hotel and had come to check on them.

"Ah, you got her," Tony said once he spotted the hot woman from the picture.

"Yah, cleaning up your mess, apparently. She's one of yours," Kate told them.

Tony frowned. "Oh no, I would certainly remember that."

Ziva rolled her eyes. "There is more than one NCIS, Tony."

"Really? You're with NCIS? Then what's with the fake name?" Tony asked.

"It's called an alias," Kensi replied, her curiosity turning more and more into irritation. "I mostly work undercover."

That caught Kate's attention. "Were you undercover last night?" she asked.

"No, I already told you. I'm on vacation. But since there are lots of people who'd want me dead, I prefer to travel with an alias," Kensi explained impatiently.

She was about to ask what the hell this was all about, when a car suddenly stopped with screeching tires at the entrance to the alleyway. The passenger's door was thrown open and a tanned face with tousled blonde hair appeared. "Kensi, get in here!" he yelled.

Kensi couldn't believe her eyes. "Deeks?! What are you doing here?"

"How about rescuing you from whatever kind of mess you've gotten your sexy ass into," he yelled back, apparently expecting her to jump into the car, so he could drive off.

But before Kensi could even tell him what a ludicrous idea that was, three more cops converged on the car and aimed their guns at Deeks, shouting a chorus of 'Police' and 'Get out of the car!'

Deeks frowned and turned off the ignition. "Woah, hold your horses! LAPD," he said, slowly raising his badge for everyone to see.

Kate closed her eyes for a second. "You've got to be freaking kidding me."

* * *

A/N: If you're not familiar with NCIS: L.A., don't worry. Kensi & Deeks will be part of the story because I always wanted to write a multiple x-over with my four favorite crime dramas. But the main perspectives will remain with Castle and Rizzoli&Isles so I hope you can all keep enjoying the story even if you don't know these two characters.


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

"Okay, so let me get this straight," Castle said, once they had all gotten back to the precinct, which was so crowded now, it really was kind of crazy. And Kate looked like she might not be able to take any more of this, which worried him quite a bit.

So he tried to pick up the slack. "You are an undercover NCIS agent, who is on vacation and just happened to meet with our murder victim, and you are an LAPD detective, who is connected to all of this… how exactly?"

"I'm her partner," Deeks said, putting special emphasis on the word. "I work with NCIS as a liaison between our departments or at least that's what it says on my pay check. Not that I really do much liaising because most L.A. cops hate me, but I guess you don't really care about that."

"No, we don't," Jane confirmed, not bothering to hide her annoyance either. "Okay, so you're her partner, but if she's on vacation, then what are you doing here?"

"Actually, I'd like to know that as well," Kensi interjected, turning to look at Deeks.

Deeks was very much aware of everyone staring at them and laughed nervously. "Well… I…'m on vacation, too. Is that a crime?"

"Oh my god, not another couple," Jane muttered under her breath.

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing. Everything's just peachy," Jane replied, her frustration slowly but steadily getting the better of her.

She wasn't quite sure why this was annoying her so much. It was probably just because she was feeling so out of control and maybe, just maybe, it was getting on her nerves that she was still the odd one out. With Frost dead – murdered – Jane suddenly felt somewhat uneasy about being alone. She wished Maura would be here with her, in this precinct that was so disturbingly not her own.

Kensi shook her head. "Okay, now that we've told you who we are, would somebody tell me who that murder victim is you keep talking about, because I don't…"

She had looked around to take in the entire assembly of cops and NCIS agents and had eventually spotted the murder board. "Oh my god," she whispered and hurried towards the board to take down one of the photos. "Barry's dead?"

"Barry?" Jane repeated incredulously. "Wait, so you did know him?"

"Yes, of course I know him! Oh my god, what happened?"

"Well, that's what we were kind of hoping you could tell us," Tony pitched in. "But it seems we're striking out yet again."

Kensi stared at the picture. "No, I didn't even know he was… dead. I only met him last night."

"You did?" Deeks interjected, but she ignored him.

"Well, at least we've found our mystery woman," Castle said.

By now Kate was pretty sure that wouldn't get them anything except one more NCIS agent and one more cop hanging around her precinct against her will. Still, she forced herself to get her head back in the game.

"Could you tell us everything connected with your meeting with Detective Frost last night?" she asked, nevertheless softening her voice a bit since Agent Blye seemed genuinely shocked.

Kensi dropped into a chair, still staring at the picture, but nodded. "Yeah, anything I can do to help… I…"

She stopped and Deeks knew her well enough by now to recognize that look on her face – that look when she had taken a serious hit, but was struggling to hold it together. He reached out for her, gently putting a hand on her arm. Even though he was like crazily jealous right now, seeing his little ninja hurt was way worse. "Hey, you okay, Kens?" he asked, using her favorite nickname.

"Yah, it's just, Barry and I went way back. My… Dad was a Marine, doing black ops missions, his father was in the Navy. We met as kids while he lived on a base near my home and we bonded over how hard it was that our Dads were always away all the time and that we never knew whether they would even come back alive. We kept in touch, but we hadn't seen each other in a while, so we decided to catch up again, took some leave and met here in New York."

Jane leaned forward. "Did he seem different or agitated when you met last night?"

Kensi shook her head. "No, he was fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Hey, I do this for a living, too, okay? He didn't mention anything that raised a red flag with me," Kensi retorted.

Since Agent Blye didn't seem inclined to answer further questions from Rizzoli, Kate took over. "So you met at _The Old Haunt_. When did you leave?"

"Around midnight."

"Did you go anywhere else after leaving the bar?"

"If you're asking me whether we spent the night together, the answer is no," Kensi replied.

Deeks clapped his hands and got up. "Okay then, case closed." When everybody just stared at him, he slowly sat back down again. "Or maybe not."

"So… basically, we're back to square one," Jane summed up this entire mess.

"Not entirely," Kensi disagreed. "Let me help."

"Us," Deeks corrected.

Kensi shot him a warning glance. "You're not even supposed to be here, Deeks."

He just shrugged. He had seen Kensi in various stages of annoyance. This one right now was not the 'Say one more word and I will kill you' stage. This was the 'I'm hurt and I don't want you to see it, so back the hell off' stage. He always made sure to ignore that one.

"But I'm here and I'm still your partner. So if you're staying, I'm staying."

"Fine," Kensi snapped. "Us."

Kate shook her head. "Thank you, but we've already got all the help we need."

"But I'm the one who spoke to Barry last. I can go over our conversation, our emails. Perhaps I've missed something," Kensi argued.

"You just told me that you didn't," Jane reminded her pointedly.

Kensi ignored her and Kate said, "Well, if you remember anything useful, you can still call us, but there are already too many people involved in this investigation."

"Right, an investigation that is partly conducted by NCIS. I am NCIS," Kensi insisted. "And he is… well he's Deeks."

"Thanks, Kensi, it's so nice to know that I can always depend on you to boost my ego," Deeks said wryly.

Tony thought this to be a good time to get back into the picture. "Anyway, Ziva and I are the ones representing NCIS in this investigation because we're the agents who actually _do_ all the investigating. You undercover agents only hang at the beach and play _Grand Theft Auto_ with your agency paid cars."

"That's totally the jealousy talking, dude," Deeks replied.

"Dude? Seriously?"

"Okay, fine!" Kate snapped. "You can help with the investigation. You NCIS people just settle this among yourselves. But anyone who does not have a suggestion for an angle to work this can leave my precinct right now."

Tony sat up a littler straighter in his chair. "I'll check back with Umar's CO."

"I will talk with his shipmates," Ziva added.

"I'll check the rest of Frost's laptop," Jane said.

Kensi put Barry's picture back on the murder board. "I'll try to remember anything useful about last night."

Deeks joined her. "I'll just study what you have so far as your fresh pair of eyes."

"I'll go check on those ER reports I requested," Ryan said and Esposito added, "I'll ask CSU whether they've found anything interesting in the hotel rooms and check with the uniforms still canvassing the area around the crime scene."

More or less satisfied, Kate turned towards her desk where Castle was sitting again. "Well, I'll just sit here and look ruggedly handsome," he said.


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

When Kate entered the morgue, she felt the sudden desire to lie down on those uncomfortable steel tables herself. They had spent all afternoon trying to find a lead, and Kate had to admit that having such a ginormous team also had its perks. They had been able to cover different angels in about half the time it would have taken her usual team. But that only made it all the more frustrating that they hadn't come up with anything yet.

Kate, for her part, had spent the last couple of hours searching for and screening surveillance footage in the hope of finding a camera that might have caught someone walking into that alley or a car leaving it. Also, to no avail.

Finally, Lanie had called again and asked them to come down. "There's something you need to see," she'd said and right now that was Kate's last hope.

While the NCIS gang had stayed behind to wrap things up at the precinct, she and Castle had taken the short drive downtown. Rizzoli had also come along to pick up her Doc and then call it a day.

In the hallway they met the said Dr. Isles, who told them, "Dr. Parish just stepped out, but she'll be back in a minute."

"That's fine," Kate replied. She was actually pretty glad to hear that because it gave her the chance to sit down for a while. Even though she had basically been sitting on her ass all afternoon, she still felt incredibly exhausted.

"Are you not feeling well, Detective?" Dr. Isles suddenly asked her. "Your body probably needs more folic acid. Adequate folate intake helps to prevent congenital malformations like neural tube defects…"

"Leave her alone, Maura," Rizzoli interrupted her before Kate could even begin to catch up with what Dr. Isles had just said.

Jane pulled Maura a couple of feet away and then also leaned against the wall next to some file cabinets. Maura frowned. "You look tired as well, Jane."

"Yeah, you have some dietary suggestions for me, too?"

"Well, the daily amount of vitamin intake as suggested by the Surgeon General is always advisable," Maura replied. "How's that saying again…? Ah, 'an apple a day…"

"… keeps the doctor away'," Jane finished for her. "You sound like my mother."

"Oh, that reminds me. Angela has already called me three times today because, apparently, she couldn't reach you," Maura said, a hint of disapproval in her voice.

"Yeah, well, I was kind of busy."

"I know, but she's really worried about you…"

Jane sighed. "Come on, Maura, spare me the lecture, okay?"

Maura examined her friend and didn't like what she was seeing. Jane was obviously exhausted, both physically and mentally. So she nodded. "I'm sorry, Jane. Did you at least find anything?"

"Not really," Jane admitted grudgingly. "We were kind of hoping that you got something."

As if on cue, Lanie returned and said, "We do, but I'm not sure you're going to like it."

Jane, Beckett and Castle followed the two Medical Examiners towards the autopsy tables on which both bodies lay covered by fresh lab sheets. To see Frost's clean, but entirely cold and lifeless body on that table just like any other murder victim made Jane feel sick to her stomach, but she forced herself to keep it together.

"First of all, we found gun shot residue on Detective Frost, but not on Petty Officer Umar, so you're looking for at least two suspects who actually fired those calibers .40 and .45 we've found," Lanie began. "But there is something interesting that we did find on Petty Officer Umar's body or, actually, Dr. Isles found it."

A little surprised that Dr. Parish deferred to her, Maura took a step forward. "I noticed these unusual stains under his fingernails," she said, raising one of the Petty Officer's hands. "It means that he's recently come into contact with aggressive chemicals."

"Chemicals? Could be what he stole from his ship's lab," Jane mused. "Do you know what kind of chemicals, exactly?"

"No, the samples are still being processed in the lab."

"But we still have a pretty good idea," Lanie continued. "When I took his clothes off, I found this stuffed into his socks." She handed Kate several pieces of crumpled paper.

Kate studied them for a second and then looked up in shock. But before she could say anything, her phone rang. "Beckett," she answered it curtly.

"_Hey, it's Agent DiNozzo, your special friend from NCIS. I finally got word back from Umar's CO. They know now what he stole from the lab, but it's not good."_

"Let me guess, it comes down to a shopping list with all the ingredients you need for a chemical bomb," Kate replied.

"_Um, yah, how'd you know?"_

"Because my ME just found instructions on how to build a chemical bomb and detailed blueprints of the Navy Yard in Washington in Umar's socks."

"_Crap! I gotta call my boss,"_ Tony cursed and hung up.

"A chemical bomb?" Jane asked incredulously once Beckett was finished.

"Yes, Agent DiNozzo just confirmed that Umar stole the necessary ingredients. It seems we're dealing with a pending terrorist attack," Kate confirmed.

Jane was both glad and shocked that this investigation had just been kicked up a notch. "So that's what Frost was after. Umar was part of a terrorist cell or at least in contact with one because he had the necessary access to the chemicals and the Navy Yard. They met in that alley so that Umar could either hand over or sell the goods. Frost must have gotten suspicious and walked right in on that meeting. Either Umar got shot accidently in the resulting gun fight or his terrorist friends didn't want to pay up."

"But since there were no chemical traces at the crime scene and uniforms haven't been able to find the suitcase Umar left the hotel with, we have to assume that the terrorists still got what they wanted," Kate reminded them.

"Not entirely," Castle contradicted and took those pieces of paper from her to hold them up. "Obviously, Umar was supposed to be more than just their delivery guy. He also had the instructions and the blueprints. And apparently, he was also smart enough to suspect that there is no honor among terrorists, so he screwed them by hiding these in his socks."

"Yah, but Castle, there is a good chance that they'll just go ahead with their plans without these or get what they need from somewhere else," Kate argued. "We still have a bunch of terrorists out there, sitting on the ingredients for a chemical bomb, without any idea where to look for them!"

Castle shrugged. "Well, at least we know that they only want to blow up the Navy Yard." The four women stared at him in disbelief. "Just trying to see the silver lining here."

"The only silver lining I can see would be if you found anything else on the bodies that could tell us where they are!" Jane said, shaking her head.

"Not yet," Maura replied apologetically. "Maybe once the lab is done with the samples."

"Which won't happen before tomorrow, so there's nothing left for y'all to do today. You should go home," Lanie suggested. "You're looking awfully pale, girl."

Kate shook her head. "Not you, too."

"Hey, just trying to help here."

"Lanie's right. Time to call it a day and let the terrorist hunting begin anew tomorrow," Castle agreed.

Jane felt like crap at the thought of giving up for the day without actually having achieved anything. But the other two were still right. So she looked at the hobby detective, whom she still found mostly weird and annoying. "Earlier you said something about having recommendations for us? I guess we'll need a hotel for the night."

"Sure, I know exactly what you're looking for." Castle took out his smart phone and accessed google maps. "Here, this is the address and you can tell the manager that I sent you. He'll take good care of you."

"Okay, thanks," Jane replied, already having decided that she would not mention anything of the sort. "Come on, Maura. See you tomorrow, Detective."

She gave Beckett a not yet cordial but at least respectful nod before leaving the autopsy room. Jane still wasn't sure whether she liked the other female detective, but after today she was at least certain that Beckett wanted to nail these sons of bitches as much as she did.


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

The hotel Castle had recommended them actually turned out to be quite nice, but also quite pricy. Well, what had she expected, really, when she had trusted a guy who was wearing 800$ suits?

"For the whole week?" Jane asked the receptionist when she told them the cost for their room.

"No, Ma'am, for one night," the receptionist corrected her gently and with pity in her eyes, which didn't exactly help to brighten Jane's mood.

"It's okay, Jane," Maura said and handed the receptionist one of her shiny credit cards. "We'll take the room."

Jane said nothing. Sometimes it was still difficult for her to stomach situations like these, in which Maura so obviously reminded her of her wealth, compared to Jane's barely even existent savings. But she knew that it wasn't Maura's intention to brag. The money was just part of her heritage and who she was. And since her heritage was pretty much screwed up, that wasn't really something to envy her for. Plus, today of all days Jane really didn't need a fight with Maura on top of everything else. So she remained silent until they actually entered their overpriced hotel suite.

"It's very nice, don't you think?" Maura asked her, surveying the living area.

"Yah, my whole family could have lived in here, including Lydia and any other girls my midlife-crisis-father and Tommy might have gotten pregnant," Jane replied.

Maura didn't seem to detect her sarcasm. "Look, they even sent up a bottle of champagne," she said, lifting said bottle out of the cooler that stood on the couch table.

"Yeah, you'll probably find that on the tab later," Jane predicted.

Maura put the bottle back into the cooler, even though she didn't seem very worried about having to pay for it. "So, which room would you like?" she asked, pointing at the two doors, one to their left and one to their right.

"Um, I don't know. I guess I'll have to check first which bed has the mattress that costs five times as much as I make in a month and which has the one that costs only twice as much."

Finally Maura couldn't ignore Jane's mood any longer. "Jane, is there something you'd like to talk about? Because I know it's not really this hotel that upsets you."

"Oh, do you? Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you and your psycho-analysis of my brain, but I'm fine. I'll just go take the most expensive shower I ever had and then go sleep in my 300 bugs a night bed."

Maura shook her head. "Fine, if you want to behave like a child, then at least be consistent and call your mother back, Jane! Oh, and I will take the left room."

She picked up her bag and went into her freshly chosen bedroom. Once inside she took in the Queen-sized bed and sighed. She hated arguing with Jane. It always made her feel as if she might break out in a rash any second.

But she had only just sat down on the bed when there was a soft knock on her door. "Maura?" Jane's voice sounded both rueful and pitiful, and when she poked her head into the room, she looked upset, too. "Can I come in? Look, I'm sorry… I… I miss Frost."

Maura smiled sadly, relieved that Jane was opening up to her, but also feeling a deep sadness. She, too, had liked the young, energetic detective, but of course it was worse for Jane, who had lost her partner and felt responsible for it, even though she wasn't. Maura hated to see her torture herself like that.

"I know," she said softly and patted the space on the bed next to her. Jane dragged herself towards the bed and slumped down next to Maura, resting her head at her shoulder for a while. "But at least now you know that he died to protect innocent people," Maura reminded her gently.

Jane looked up again. "Yeah, but still… why didn't he just call me or something… or do anything except…"

"Getting shot?"

"Yes."

"Detective Frost was a very brave, young man and he did what every good police officer would have done, what _you_ would have done," Maura said.

Jane shrugged. "Yeah, probably. I just wish I would have been there with him."

"I don't."

Jane stared at her and Maura was afraid that she might not understand her, but still she said, "I know this must sound awful, but I'm glad you weren't there because performing that autopsy on Detective Frost… it made me picture you on that table for the first time and that thought caused my paraventricular nucleus to stimulate the release of adrenocorticotrophic hormones."

"Um, I'm not sure, but I think there was a compliment in there… somewhere," Jane said with a smile on her lips and squeezed her hand.

"It's a common stress response," Maura explained with a nod.

Jane looked sympathetic. "It must have been hard to do that autopsy."

"I just wish we would have found more that could help you with your case," Maura replied.

"Hey, thanks to you we know that we're dealing with terrorists. That's more than we managed to dig up all day."

"How did it go, with Detective Beckett I mean?"

Jane sighed. "Okay, under the circumstances, I guess. She's a good cop, I'll hand her that much. Even though I have no idea what the hell she wants with that writer boy, although I suspect that it has something to do with his skills behind closed doors."

Maura shook her head. "Don't be mean, Jane. He really is a good author. You should ask him for an autograph. Your mother would love that."

Jane snorted. "Yeah, right."

"What about those NCIS agents?" Maura asked, deciding not to press the issue. She could always just ask for that autograph herself, after all.

"Well, DiNozzo is a goofball and David is a killer, which makes up for one weird combination. I sure as hell don't want to know what they are doing behind closed doors."

Maura raised her eyebrows. "You mean they're a couple?"

"Something like that," Jane nodded. "Just like Beckett and her writer slave, _and_ that undercover NCIS agent who turned out to be our mystery woman and _her_ partner, who's also a cop and apparently followed her across the country like an abandoned dog or something."

Maura looked at Jane and patted her hand knowingly. "I'm sure Casey will call you soon. He did say that he would like to see you again. You just have to give him some time."

Personally, Maura wasn't at all convinced that Casey was even good enough for Jane. But then again, she had a hard time finding anyone who would be. In any case, she didn't like this cat-and-mouse-game he was playing with her. But if Jane thought that Casey would make her happy then Maura would try to support her.

"What?" Jane frowned because she hadn't expected Maura to bring up Casey. But now that she had, Jane realized that she actually hadn't yet thought about him today, even though lately he had been very much connected to her occasional feelings of loneliness she wouldn't really admit to.

"No, this is not about Casey. I'm not jealous!" Jane could see that Maura wasn't convinced, so she added, "Well, not of someone like Castle or DiNozzo, anyway."

No, Jane definitely didn't care for Castle, DiNozzo or that Deeks guy, each one more childish and immature than the next. But she couldn't deny that Frost's murder and dealing with all those partners/couples all day had left her feeling empty of sorts. And if she hadn't even thought of Casey herself, then she probably had given up hope on them as well without even noticing it. But what better day to realize that than today? The punches just kept on coming.

"No, but you want someone like that, someone you can depend on and who will accept you with all your faults. It's okay to want that, Jane. You deserve that," Maura said with as much emphasis as she could muster because it was just downright ridiculous that Jane thought that there was no one out there who loved her.

After recovering from her initial surprise that Maura seemed to know exactly what was going on in her head, Jane said, "Yeah? But I already have someone like that." She said it without thinking, but it only felt all the more true when she heard it out loud. Jane had felt like crap all day. She was still feeling miserable, but she wasn't really alone anymore.

Maura looked confused at first, but then she caught on and then it somehow got a little uncomfortable, so Jane added, "And boy, she is quite a piece of work herself, especially if you're not fluent in a language that died out with the Romans."

Taking Jane's benign teasing to mean that she was feeling more like herself again, Maura smiled. "Actually, the Romans didn't die…"

"Thanks, Maura, I don't need the history lesson," Jane interrupted her. "Although… I guess I could use the help falling asleep. I have to be at the top of my game tomorrow."

"You can just stay here with me if you like," Maura offered, pointing at the bed they were already sitting on. Although she hadn't been Detective Frost's partner like Jane, performing that autopsy had chilled Maura to the bone and she wasn't expecting to sleep well tonight.

"Um, you do know that I'm still a big girl, right? I'm not afraid of the boogieman anymore."

Maura just shook her head. "Studies have shown that sleeping next to someone else often helps to soothe anxieties and to prevent insomnia."

Usually, Jane would at least have rolled her eyes at Maura for quoting yet another study nobody else cared about, but she didn't, because she felt that this might be one of those times when Maura didn't just do this because she couldn't help herself, but because this was her own personal and very weird coping mechanism. Suddenly, Jane felt bad for focusing so much on herself. So what if she had been forced to deal with a bunch of annoying colleagues? Maura's task today had been much harder. Plus, Jane really didn't want to go anywhere right now.

"Well, if your studies say that, who am I to dare refute them?" she said and slid across the bed to the other side. Maura lay down as well, but neither one of them actually tried to sleep. "Do you remember how Frost couldn't even look at a dead body when he started out as my partner?" Jane asked eventually, a trace of amusement in her voice.

Maura smiled as well. "Yes, he really did have a severe case of necrophobia."

Jane turned her head to look at her. "Can't you just once talk about them like they're people and not just bodies because Frost was a real person, you know?"

Taken by surprise by that unexpected blow from Jane, Maura didn't know how to respond at first. "I treat every dead body with the utmost respect, regardless of whether I knew them personally or not, Jane," she said eventually. "My use of technical terms is not a sign of detachment, but of admiration – admiration for medicine and science, which makes it possible for me to help these people…"

"Okay, Maura, Maura," Jane interrupted her and put a hand on her arm. "I know that. I just… keep putting my foot in my mouth today. I'm sorry. Again."

Maura immediately calmed down again. She knew that most people thought her to be slightly weird and difficult or even downright annoying, and after Hope's reaction to finding out the truth about her identity, Maura had once again realized that Jane was the only one she was really close to, even though they were very different people. So sometimes, when Jane said things like that, Maura got scared that she might get fed up with her, too. "You don't have to apologize, Jane. I know this is hard for you. You do know that this wasn't your fault, though, right?"

Jane shrugged. "Technically, yes. But it still doesn't feel right. I was his partner, after all. I just feel like I should have known!"

"How could you have? Detective Frost wasn't here as your partner, not even as a detective. He didn't know himself what he would walk into," Maura argued.

"Yeah, I know," Jane conceded and sighed. "Just… if you go anywhere, to meet a friend or whatever, tell me, okay? This is not happening again." Jane grabbed her arm and looked at her as if she wouldn't let go until she promised.

For a second Maura felt unable to breathe and she was glad that she was already lying down because otherwise she might have started hyperventilating. She really hated lying, especially to Jane, but she forced herself to keep breathing and also reminded herself that she wasn't actually lying. So she managed to nod. "I will."

Jane on the other hand relaxed a little now. She moved around a bit and eventually said, "Man, these mattresses really are awesome."

Maura eagerly focused on that topic instead. "Do you really like them? Because your birthday is coming up again…"

"Oh no, I don't want you to get me a mattress for my birthday, especially not a thousand dollar mattress!" Jane replied vehemently.

Maura decided to file that idea away for later and shrugged. "Okay."

Jane looked at her skeptically. "I'm serious, Maura."

"I'm sure you are, but the way your erector spinae muscles are relaxing right now contradicts that a little."

"Maura!"


	11. Chapter 10

**A/N: Thanks to everyone who so far took the time to read and/or review this story – keeps me happy ;)**

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**Chapter 10**

Still at the morgue, Kate was trying to figure out how to persuade Castle to let her go home alone without raising any more suspicion.

She knew she was acting like a coward, but she sill had no idea what to do about this entire mess and she was trying to postpone the moment where she would finally have to make a decision. But to stall for time seemed only possible if she spent the night alone. To be with Castle without telling him seemed even worse than hiding.

"I know exactly what you need right now," he said, however, once they had bid goodnight to Lanie. "You need my famous pick-me-up-pancakes and you'll be feeling better in no time."

Kate sighed. "Thanks, but I'm beat, Castle. I just want to go to bed."

"Okay, you know you never have to ask me twice there," Castle replied, smiling.

"To sleep, Castle," Kate clarified.

"I know. I saw you fighting today, Kate. I was just trying to make you smile, but you're extraordinarily stubborn today."

God, why was he making this so hard? "I'm just tired. It was a really long day."

"Yeah, but at least we made some progress."

Kate frowned. "Yah, what case were you working on?"

"Hey, we know now that we're dealing with an act of terrorism," Castle reminded her. "That's something."

Kate snorted. "Yes, we have something of everything on this case. We have every goddamn police department or agency involved – not even counting the FBI or Homeland Security who will probably want to consult as well, now that it's a threat to national security – but what we don't have is a freaking suspect!"

"You have to give it time, Kate," Castle said, putting a hand on her arm. "All this frustration isn't like you."

Alarmed that this might go back into the 'what is going on with you' direction, Kate sighed. "I know and we have cooperated with other agencies before. This was just… unexpected."

"But for what it's worth, it was certainly entertaining to meet all those agents and detectives. I have a feeling there's a character for my next book there somewhere."

Kate looked up. "I'm glad that at least one of us was having fun. So why don't you go home and write a little?"

But Castle shook his head. "Nah, that can wait. I want to take care of you tonight."

"I told you, all I need is sleep," Kate insisted.

"Then I'll tuck you in," Castle remained just as persistent.

"I'm not a child, Castle," Kate said, gritting her teeth. Was he really going to make her say it?

"Come on, Kate, just let me take you home. I'll be good and all. I just need to know that we're okay."

Kate hesitated for a second and tried to hide the dilemma she found herself trapped in. She didn't want to lie to Castle (any more than she already did by withholding information), but she wasn't ready to tell the truth either. So there was only one thing left to say.

"Okay, let's go home."

When they had gotten back to her apartment, Castle headed for her kitchen counter. "So, are you sure you want to pass on those pancakes?" he asked. "I'll throw in an extra dose of love while I make them and you can just lie down and watch me."

Since she had already given in once and it seemed to make him so happy to be able to do something for her, Kate sighed. "Okay, Castle, I'll have your pancakes."

The dazzling smile Castle gave her in response made Kate feel as if her stomach were in knots, or simply as if she were a really bad person, which, apparently, she was. She was lying to a man who just turned her kitchen upside down to make her pancakes at 9 p.m. only to cheer her up.

"If I'm going to write about our new friends, I'll need all the information I can get. So what's your take on them, you know, apart from the fact that they stole your case?" Castle asked while he started cooking and Kate settled down on her couch.

"DiNozzo and Deeks seem like juvenile delinquents, but I guess they wouldn't have gotten to where they are if they never got any work done. Blye is the typical undercover cop with all the necessary assets, but I'm not sure how much use she'll be in a homicide investigation."

Kate paused, but Castle met her gaze with a knowing smile. "Don't worry, you won't tempt me into defending her. What I said about her looks was from a mere professional perspective."

"I'll bet," Kate replied skeptically, but she couldn't help smiling as well, if only for a moment. All of this could have been perfect if not for the fact that, for some reason or other, her life kept turning upside down whenever she felt like she could just be happy with the way things were.

"Anyway, Blye is certainly easier to deal with than David, who is…"

"… intimidating? Like… half Catwoman and half Scarlett Johansson in _The Avengers_?" Castle suggested.

"Worth to keep an eye on," Kate rephrased that.

"What about Rizzoli?"

"A bit too emotional and impulsive, but she has good instincts and wants to get the job done," Kate said, not quite ready to admit out loud that she certainly trusted Rizzoli the most if she had to pick one of their new acquaintances. But then again, Rizzoli was a fellow detective and Kate would favor a cop over a federal agent any day.

Castle merely smiled and said nothing.

At first, Kate welcomed the silence. But then the short-lived peace was destroyed by certain images that kept creeping into her thoughts like the one where Castle might be making those pancakes not for her but for that yet undefined mass of cells that apparently was growing inside of her.

And before Kate could really think it through, she heard herself ask, "So, how's Alexis?"

Dear God, was she really going there?

"She's fine," Castle replied, but his smile seemed a little forced.

That caught Kate's attention despite everything else that was going on in her head. "Then what's with the long face?"

Castle sighed. "Well, you know that she has that new boyfriend and that I was very tolerant about that. I mean, I always knew that she wouldn't be able to entirely avoid contact with the primitive and predatory species of the male college student, but I was hoping that they would just come and go. And lately, she hasn't mentioned him all that much anymore, so I was feeling pretty good about that… until I talked to my mother about it."

Fearing that she might already know where this was heading, Kate sat up. "What did Martha say?"

"That Alexis didn't mention a break-up to her and that the only reason for Alexis to avoid the topic of her boyfriend in a conversation with me would be that she might be thinking about going for a homerun with this… insolent little fool."

Kate suppressed a smile because she knew how serious Castle was about this. "Okay, but you don't really know that for sure."

Castle looked at her and his gaze basically skewered her to the couch. "So you're not agreeing with my mother's assessment?"

"I don't know, Castle. This is something that only Alexis can answer. But if she feels ready, then that's her decision and there's nothing you can do about that," Kate tried to break it to him gently.

"But that's it. She's not ready! She's way too young." Castle grumbled and banged the frying pan against the stove.

Kate gave him a couple of seconds to calm down again before she said, "It might feel that way to you, but not to Alexis. And you know you have to let her go eventually."

"That's something only people who don't have kids of their own can say," Castle replied and that unexpected hit made Kate sink deeper into the couch cushions again and end this conversation before it could result in bloodshed.

But Castle shook his head and sighed. "I'm sorry and you're right, of course. It's just that I look at Alexis and I still see my little girl… but I have to accept that she doesn't need me as her father 24/7 anymore. That part of my – of our – life is over and that's a good thing. It's how it's supposed to be. Now I'm free to enjoy other aspects of my life like… making pancakes for you and I'll still be Alexis' Dad whenever she needs me."

Castle seemed more or less satisfied with that conclusion, but when Kate didn't respond, he looked up.

He found the couch deserted because Kate had jumped to her feet and vanished into the bathroom to start puking again.

Thankfully, Castle didn't follow her this time and Kate tried to cover the whole thing up because the last thing she needed right now was another discussion about her medical condition. But of course she was rather hesitant about eating those pancakes afterwards and Castle didn't push her either.

The entire dinner turned into a rather quiet affair because Kate was still recovering from their last conversation. She didn't know what she had hoped would come out of talking about Alexis – but Castle embracing the new freedom that came with his reduced fatherhood was probably the worst possible outcome.

They left the dishes in the sink and went to bed quickly afterwards. But despite her exhaustion Kate couldn't fall asleep right away and, apparently, Castle didn't fare much better. After a while he scooted closer again, put an arm around her and pressed his face into her hair because she had turned her back to him.

"Talk to me, Kate," he whispered.

"I'm sleeping, Castle."

"Then sleep-talk to me," he insisted.

Kate sighed. "About what?"

"About whatever it is that's going on with you."

For a second, Kate thought that he already knew because he seemed to move his hand towards her stomach as if to let it rest there, but then he simply continued to caress her in a soothing gesture.

But right now his soft touch had the opposite effect on Kate. It made her tense with guilt and unable to say anything.

This time, she heard Castle sigh. "Okay, but I'm here, Kate," he said and kissed her head. "Always."

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A/N: I know, I know, but don't worry. Castle will find out eventually… ;)


	12. Chapter 11

**A/N: Did you guys hear about Cote? I was glad that I was already done with this chapter because the news of her decision made me really sad. Still do, actually. But I guess it's just all the more reason to allow Tiva to live on in fan fictions…**

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**Chapter 11**

Once they had found a hotel and had checked into two adjoining rooms, Tony had retrieved his laptop to start a video chat with McGee. "So, what's the news, McDutiful?" he asked once the connection had been established.

"_We have started a search of the entire Navy Yard. Nothing so far,"_ McGee reported.

"The terrorists have acquired the necessary bomb materials only last night. It is unlikely that they could have planted the bomb already," Ziva argued and while she leaned forward so that McGee could see her, her hair brushed Tony's cheek. She thought she could see him smile about that, but she tried to ignore it.

Meanwhile, McGee nodded. _"You're probably right, but better safe than sorry. Director Vance has also ordered a heightened security for the next couple of days, which will hopefully stop those guys from even getting onto the Navy Yard."_

Before either Tony or Ziva could respond to that, they heard Gibbs' voice from somewhere beyond their field of vision. _"You talkin' to DiNozzo and Ziva?"_

"_Yes, Boss,"_ was all McGee could respond before Gibbs already appeared next to him.

"_You got an update?"_ he asked.

"Detective Beckett sent us copies of the Navy Yard blueprints and the bomb building instructions they found in the Petty Officer's socks, and our own little Bomb Squad expert here had a look at them," Tony replied.

Ziva shot him an annoyed look, even though it was probably meant as a compliment, but even so there was no need to flirt with her in front of Gibbs. "If they really needed those instructions, then they clearly have no experience with building bombs, Gibbs. I doubt that they have been able to build it yet or that they have done so before," she told him.

"Terrorists who play with bombs without any clue what the hell they're doing. Isn't that heart-warming?" Tony added sarcastically.

Gibbs ignored him. _"We've just completed our search. The bomb's not on the Navy Yard yet."_

"Once they notice the increased security, they might change their plans and go for a softer target, Boss," Tony said.

"_Yah, which means you need to find them first, DiNozzo."_

Tony and Ziva exchanged a helpless look since they didn't have any leads at the moment, but McGee jumped in. _"Well, I've been checking out known terrorist groups from our terrorist watch list for activity, but if Ziva thinks that they haven't raised attention to themselves yet, that's not going to be of much use, I guess."_

"Yeah, but keep trying, Timmy. It's the thought that counts," Tony joked.

Ziva shook her head in exasperation. "Just because they are no experts on building bombs, does not mean that they're not still a threat, Tony," she said before focusing on Gibbs again. "We're waiting for some lab results that will hopefully help us to locate them in the morning."

_Gibbs nodded. "Good, call me if you got…"_

"_Gibbs, Gibbs, Gibbs, Gibbs!"_ They couldn't see her yet, but the voice could only belong to Abby. Ziva could easily picture her hurrying towards them in her plateau shoes, tartan skirt and black T-shirt that read 'Daddy's Girl'. _"There were some very grumpy and not very talkative guys down in my lab just now – looking for a bomb?"_

"_Yes, DiNozzo and Ziva uncovered some evidence in New York that suggests somebody might be planning an attack,"_ Gibbs replied.

"_But we haven't found anything. There is no bomb, not yet, anyway,"_ McGee added, looking at Abby with obvious concern.

And it seemed warranted because Abby did sound a little freaked. _"So what? Why are we not evacuating? If someone is trying to blow us up again…" _

"_Abby, the entire Navy Yard is on high alert now,"_ McGee tried to soothe her_. "They won't get that bomb in here."_

"_Yeah, are you sure about that, McGee? What if they put it in the Director's car again? Or your car? Or mine?"_ Ziva could hear how Abby paced up and down in front of McGee's desk. _"Ducky almost died of a heart attack last time and you didn't even notice that you had a piece of glass stuck in your body! What if this time somebody dies for real…?"_

"_Hey! Nobody is going to die, Abs,"_ Gibbs interrupted her in a voice that was calm but still determined.

Abby stopped her pacing. _"You promise, Gibbs?"_

"_Did I ever lie to you, Abs?" _

She seemed to ponder that. _"Could I still sleep at your place tonight?"_ she asked eventually.

A rare smile appeared on Gibbs' lips, one that was mostly reserved for Abby. _"As long as you don't bring the entire agency."_

"_Thanks, Gibbs!"_ Abby said and finally came into view to give him a hug. _"I'll just go get Burt. Bye, Tony. Bye, Ziva."_

Once Abby had hurried off again, Tony said, "Ouch, to get benched by a farting hippo – that must hurt, huh, McRomeo?"

McGee made a face, but it was Gibbs, who asked, _"You got anything else, DiNozzo?"_

"Um, not for tonight, Boss."

"_Then go do something else!"_

Following that command, the connection was severed and Tony and Ziva were alone in the hotel room again. Ziva was about to leave for her own room when Tony put away the laptop and rose to his feet. "You heard the boss. So what do you say to a night out, Zee-vah?"

"You should better rest, Tony. We have lots of work to do tomorrow," she replied.

"Ah, work, schmork. You gotta have some fun every now and then, Ziva, and I'm telling you, you haven't really lived until you've seen a Broadway show. I've got us some superb tickets to _The Lion King_. So what do you say?"

Tony really did produce two tickets and waved them at her, even though Ziva had no idea when he might have gotten them. But she was even more surprised that he was obviously really serious about asking her to go out tonight. Her initial refusal had been instinctive, without even pausing to consider that Tony might be serious. But now that he was, Ziva hesitated.

"_The Lion King?_" she merely repeated, trying to stall for a little more time.

"1994 Disney masterpiece, musical drama film that basically retells the story of Hamlet with a pride of lions, two Academy Awards for Best Original Score and Song. Come on, work with me here, Ziva," Tony started listing his movie facts, growing more and more desperate at her missing response.

So Ziva eventually decided to help him out. "Yes, I know the film, Tony," she admitted.

"But not the musical, which is a whole different experience."

"Maybe, but there is still a terrorist threat out there…" Ziva began to protest.

"… which we can do nothing about right now," Tony interrupted her though. "Come on, Ziva, once in a lifetime opportunity."

Ziva opened her mouth to decline, but then she met Tony's gaze and hesitated. This morning she had been afraid that he would try to push her to talk – to get inside her head when she wasn't even sure herself what was going on there. But right now all he seemed to want was to go out and have some fun, probably still remembering what he had perceived as a challenge to make her laugh. And that he had picked a story about a son who loses his father and learns to live with it was just a silent undercurrent that drew Ziva further in.

It proved once again how thoughtful Tony had become in the last couple of weeks, months, perhaps even years. Ziva couldn't pinpoint it exactly, but when she looked back now, there weren't many people who had been a constant source of support for her, and somehow Tony had ended up being the most prominent one on her mind. Unfortunately, that didn't mean that Ziva was able to respond in kind. She certainly hadn't done so this morning, but this now – accepting his innocent invitation – that she could do.

"Fine, pick me up in five minutes, Tony," she said and left for her own room, but not without seeing the initial surprise on her partner's face that quickly turned into a huge grin.

In her room, Ziva changed into more casual clothes and allowed her hair to fall down freely. A little surprised, she took in her reflection in the mirror. This morning she had felt that she needed the tight ponytail and flawless outfit to convince people that she was alright and to stop them from trying to look deeper. But now that she was facing an evening full of song and freedom and Tony, those constraints were gone.

Tony knocked on her door and when she opened it, he said, "The carriage is waiting for you, my lady."

Ziva frowned. "Tell me you didn't actually order a horse-drawn carriage, Tony!"

"What's wrong with horses?" he asked innocently.

"It's less than 50 degrees outside!"

"Yeah, good point. Plus, we'd probably be late, so no, I ordered a cab. I was just trying to be poetic, but I'll make a note for the future that that's not really working with you," Tony replied.

Ziva raised an eyebrow. "I happen to love poems, Tony. They just need to be handled with the necessary expertise."

She expected him to make some comment about how movies were much more entertaining, anyway, but instead Tony put on a solemn face, cleared his throat and quoted, "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference." He paused and then smiled at her. "You were saying, my little Miss Smarty-pants?"

"Okay, I'm impressed," Ziva admitted, carefully holding back a smile. "So, what is your road not taken, Tony?"

"Oh, I don't know. The way I see it, I just haven't taken it – yet," Tony replied, his eyes never leaving hers.

"Well, for now it should probably lead you downstairs or that cab will be gone," Ziva said eventually.

Tony stepped back a little. "Yes, good idea. After you, Miss David."

When they got to the hotel lobby, the cab was still there and they made it to the musical on time. During the performance they didn't talk much because Ziva found herself unexpectedly drawn to the story. She had known what it was about, of course, but hadn't thought much about it before.

But when Mufasa died, she felt her insides go stone-cold and she sat up rigidly in her seat, until Tony suddenly reached for her hand and squeezed it. Surprised and unsure how to react, Ziva looked at him, but he just stared straight ahead as if nothing had happened, and Ziva relaxed at little. During the grand finale she tried to wipe away a single tear as inconspicuously as possible, but again, Tony didn't comment.

They rode back to the hotel and walked towards the door of Ziva's hotel room in relative silence. Then both of their cell phones announced that they'd gotten a text message. Tony was first to read it and said, "Oh boy, Abby is missing her farting hippo and asks for anyone who knows something."

Ziva had read the same text and looked up with a frown. "Whoever took it is in for a world of pain when Abby finds out."

"Yeah, poor McGee."

"You think McGee took it?"

"She did want to take that stuffed animal to Gibbs' house instead of asking our McMisérables, and even a man like McGee has some form of self-esteem," Tony said while putting his phone away again.

Ziva couldn't help but smile when she pictured the outcome of that scenario. In general, she felt a little sad after watching the musical, but somehow in a good way, and she knew that Tony had almost everything to do with that. So once she had opened her door and stepped inside, she turned around again. "Thank you, Tony," she said.

He met her gaze calmly. "I meant what I said, Ziva," he replied and Ziva knew he was referring to their goodbye on the airport.

He had told her in surprisingly good Hebrew that she was not alone and he had been right. Tony had tried to support her every step of the way, had opened up his home to her and let her sleep in his bed without making any juvenile comments about that. Even when she had pushed him away and had responded to his kindness with coldness, he hadn't turned away. And now that her father was gone… it seemed as if Tony was the only one left.

But while that thought was comforting, it was also frightening. Ziva wasn't sure whether she was ready or what it was that she wanted, except that she wanted revenge for her father's death. And once she would find the lead she was looking for, she would hunt Bodnar down, and she wouldn't be able to stop, not for Tony, not for anyone. So it would probably be best for Tony if he wasn't there to begin with.

"I know," Ziva said eventually, repeating her own words from the airport, acknowledging Tony's support, thanking him for it, but also keeping him at bay again, at least for now. "Good night, Tony," she added.

"Sweet dreams," he replied and kept looking at her until she closed the door.

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A/N: Got another shorter one for you…


	13. Chapter 12

**A/N: This is an NCIS:LA chapter, but not all that long, so bear with me please (and considering recent news, it seems we have to switch from Tiva to Densi anyway). But either way, thanks for reading and reviewing! :)**

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**Chapter 12**

Kensi returned to her hotel that evening, feeling even worse than when she had arrived the day before. Learning about Barry's death had opened up some old wounds that had finally begun to heal, and it had even worsened the confusion she had felt when she had come to New York – because it had once again shown her how unstable her life was. How could she even think about connecting with anyone when she always ended up investigating their deaths? At the very least, Kensi was thankful that she was alone right now.

Deeks had been held up at the precinct, having to clarify his whereabouts with the NYPD, the LAPD, NCIS or all of the above and Kensi had jumped at the chance to bolt. Right now she just wanted to be on her own and she certainly didn't want to be with Deeks because he was kind of the reason why she had left L.A. in the first place – not that she would tell him that.

So feeling pretty beat, Kensi opened the door to her hotel room and had just ditched her jacket when she became aware of the person sitting on her bed. She instinctively took a step back and reached for her gun, but stopped once she realized what was going on.

"Hey, don't stop undressing on my account," her unexpected visitor said.

"Dammit, Deeks! I should just shoot you where you stand for startling me like this!" Kensi cursed.

Deeks seemed unperturbed. "Better think about who else could have come in here if I could."

"But anyone else would be dead now and I'm still considering to just shoot you for your stupidity!" Kensi replied and banged her gun and ID on the counter.

Deeks shrugged. "I could imagine worse ways to die."

"Yah? Well, let's see about that. What the hell are you even doing here, Deeks? Did you decide to become a stalker now?"

"Stalker? Last week I was still your partner!" Deeks replied, finally showing some seriousness as well. "And last time I checked, partners still told each other where they were going."

Kensi shook her head in dismissal. "I just took some leave. You could have asked Hetty."

"I did, but I don't wanna have to drink some Tibetan tea that looks like Yak wee-wee to learn that my partner has bolted on me."

"I didn't bolt. I left to meet a friend, which you would know about if you had any," Kensi retorted.

"Oh, okay, I didn't want to go there right now, but since you're bringing it up… what's with you and that guy, anyway?" Deeks asked.

Kensi took a few quick steps towards him. "He was a good friend and now he's dead and I'm standing here arguing with you. I wonder what is wrong with that picture!"

Deeks straightened up as well. "Oh, so you'd like our places to be reversed, is that what you're saying?"

"What if I am?"

"Then I would ask you to get your skinny ass out of here!"

"This is my freaking room, Deeks!" Kensi yelled, but when he didn't respond and the room fell silent suddenly, she deflated a little and dropped down on the bed next to him.

They both just sat there in silence for a while. Eventually, Deeks said, "Okay, how about a timeout, partner? Because this… didn't exactly go as planned."

Kensi sighed and looked at him. "You had a plan?"

"Yah, my plan was to find my partner."

"Well, you found me."

Deeks frowned. "Yeah, was kind of hoping for a warmer welcome."

"Did you ever consider the possibility that I would have told you where I was going if I wanted you to come with me?" Kensi asked.

Deeks inclined his head a little. "That… may have crossed my mind for a second, but then I couldn't imagine a reason for anyone not to want to spend some quality time with me."

"How about spending some quality time with somebody else? Not that he had a very good time." Kensi sighed, still unable to fully accept the reality of Barry's death.

"I'm sorry about that by the way, your friend, I mean," Deeks said, sounding serious for once.

Kensi managed a sad smile. "Thanks."

"You wanna talk about it?"

"No, not really."

"You wanna talk about the real reason you came here?"

Kensi sighed. "Can't you just give it a rest, Deeks?" she asked because she could hardly tell him the truth.

"I don't know. Can I? Cause it feels like my partner is holding out on me, and I'm pretty sure it said in that handbook somewhere that whenever there's something wrong with your partner, you have to kick as many asses as possible to make it right again."

"I'm fine, Deeks," Kensi assured him, even though for a moment she was tempted – the way she was always tempted whenever Deeks showed her his good side. That part of him that wasn't the juvenile Casanova, but the part of him that was loyal and sweet and kind – so much so that Kensi started losing sight of the boundaries. In short, the very thing that had even gotten her into this mess in the first place.

"Right now, all I need is to find the bastard who did this to Barry."

Deeks looked at her and then shrugged. "Okay, I get it. So let's do some terrorist ass kicking first."

"I didn't mean tonight, Deeks. We don't have any leads. Plus, those police detectives are so tightly wired, they would file a complaint with Hetty the minute we did anything without them and if Hetty had to come out here because of us…"

"… we'd be doomed," Deeks finished that thought for her.

"Pretty much. So, the ass kicking has to wait until tomorrow," Kensi said.

Deeks lay down on the bed. "Fine by me."

Kensi frowned. "What are you doing, Deeks?"

"Getting my beauty sleep. You should try that, too. Helps to prevent wrinkles."

"I don't have wrinkles!" Kensi replied indignantly. "And this is still my hotel room. How about you move your wrinkle-free ass to get your own?"

Deeks barely opened his eyes. "Why? We slept in one bed last week, too, remember, Sugar Bear? And even though you snore like a drunk sailor, as your partner I'm willing to make that sacrifice."

"We were undercover, Deeks! And if somebody in this room snores, it's you, and as your partner I'm giving you thirty seconds to get out of here!"

"Fine, you were always hogging the blanket, anyway," Deeks said and got up. But halfway towards the door, he turned around again. "Wanna agree on a safe word in case you get lonely tonight?"

Kensi reached for her pillow and threw it at him.

Deeks raised his hands in defense. "Okay, but you had your chance, so don't come running to me later. I might have found somebody else who's more appreciative of my company."

Once he had left, Kensi tried to suppress a frustrated scream. What the hell was going on here? Since when was she the kind of person who just ran away from the job she loved and how in the world could that idiot have anything to do with that?

At the beginning of their recent undercover op, Hetty had ordered the both of them into her office and had given them a lecture about the possible complications of pretending to be a married couple. Kensi had laughed it off at the time and now she was sitting here in a hotel room in New York, her world turned upside down. Dammit, why did Hetty always have to be right?

The undercover op had gone fine – they'd found their Russian sleeper agent – that wasn't the problem. The problem was that Kensi had gotten used to it all – the big house; the families with their two kids and two cars; the children playing outside; the someone sleeping next to her in the bed, saying 'good morning' and 'good night'; the someone to come home to, or more precisely even, the _Deeks_ to come home to.

In part, Kensi had already confessed that to Deeks – that she had expected to hate all this and had then turned out to kind of like it. And he had surprised her by not making jokes about that, or at least not too many jokes, and he had even been about to offer her help on the whole 'have kids of your own' issue. But Kensi had never gotten the chance to find out how serious he had been because they'd been interrupted. Either way, they had been in a different world then, quite literally, and Kensi had expected all of it to fade once they got out. And with Deeks apparently it had, but not with her.

She was still Kensi Blye, the daughter of a marine, who could build a car engine from scratch, survive in the wilderness for as long as necessary, and take on any guy with a gun who thought that she was an easy target because her brain wasn't wired with testosterone. But at the same time, she suddenly couldn't stop thinking about that other life, that 'white-picked-fence' life that would include those 'little mutant ninja assassins' as Deeks had called her potential kids – which was a little offensive, but then, if they ever had kids, they would probably be just like that.

Kensi shook her head in exasperation. She was doing it again. She, the woman who had never gotten to a second date in her life, was thinking about having kids and with a man no less, who mostly couldn't even remember the name of the woman he was currently sleeping with. Well, in a way, they were a match made in heaven or a recipe for disaster. Probably a little bit of both.

In any case, Kensi had come here to get away from all that, perhaps get the opinion of an old friend, and hopefully, to return with a clear head. Instead, her friend was dead and Deeks was right here in this hotel, bugging her about why she had left in the first place.

Oh, the days to come would be so much fun.


	14. Chapter 13

The morning was going better than expected and certainly not as bad as it could have. No one had tried to shoot anyone yet and there had been no arguments to speak of either. They were starting to get the hang of this forced cooperation thing and managed to delegate tasks according to their specialties, whatever those were exactly. At the very least, their cooperative investigation had the advantage that it had scared the Homeland Security off. Once they had heard who was already working on this case, they had decided not to get into the mix as well, at least for the time-being.

Now the NCIS agents were all over the computer stuff, checking terrorist watch lists, monitoring web pages that their missing terrorists might check out for new advice on how to build that bomb, and looking for a money trail. Jane didn't mind leaving that kind of work to them since that had always been Frost's specialty, and she didn't need a reminder of how much she missed him.

In a more down-to-earth approach, Beckett had surveyed the crime scene photos again and had actually caught something they'd missed before, which bugged Jane a little. It was a car that was parked near their crime scene and seemed to have a fresh dent in the side. When they went to check it out, the owner confirmed that the dent hadn't been there before, so they had CSU take a look. They found some paint particles which narrowed down the mark and model of the car they were looking for, but without a license plate, that was still like looking for a needle in a haystack.

But as Beckett's writer monkey put it, 'At least it's a haystack.'

The East coast NCIS agents had also forced some poor guy from their team back home, who apparently had the misfortune of being named McGoo, to trace that email they had found on Umar's computer. While they were still waiting for their partner to come through, Beckett's ME called with the news that they had finally gotten some test results back. So once again Jane made the trip down to the morgue together with Beckett and Castle, who apparently followed her everywhere she went.

"Stop playing with the radio, Castle," Kate said when they had to stop at another red light.

Jane was extremely glad for that command because she had started to get annoyed with the constant changing of radio channels. In any case, she was more than glad that, back at home, Maura was working in the same building. She would hate it if she had to drive halfway across town to see her friend or to listen to her going on and on about some fascinating little particle that might or might not be relevant to the case. She could be infuriating that way.

But so could Castle. Jane was discovering unexpected similarities. "Hey, I made you pancakes last night, I think I deserve control of the radio for that!" he protested.

"Fine, then just choose a station!" Kate replied, not very eager to discuss last night with Rizzoli listening in.

"I was about to when I was so rudely interrupted," Castle defended himself. "I have to try them out first in order to decide, don't I?"

"Castle, I swear if you touch that radio one more time…"

"Okay, okay, I think I know what we need." He changed the station yet again to some esoteric channel that played indigenous drum music combined with supposedly relaxing wind and water sounds.

Kate just glared at him. "Do you want to walk to the morgue, Castle?"

Jane thought this to be a good time to intercede. "Um, so how did you two first start out?" she asked because she really was a little curious.

"Oh, the NYPD needed my help on a case," Castle said, turning around in his seat to look at her.

"Actually, you were a possible suspect at first because someone was killing according to your books," Kate corrected.

Castle had to laugh, remembering that first interrogation when he had told Kate that she had gorgeous eyes. He hadn't thought twice about flirting with a beautiful woman like her, but it also hadn't taken him long to realize that there was more to Kate Beckett than met the eye. Much more. As far as he could tell, he was still in the process of discovering that. A little bit like peeling away the layers of an onion, even though she probably wouldn't like that comparison very much. In any case, he was dealing with a particularly stubborn layer right now.

"Yah, as if you had been able to arrest me, being a hardcore fan of my work and all that." He winked at her.

Kate rolled her eyes. "Yes, Castle, that was the reason; the fact that you were innocent couldn't have had anything to do with that. Besides, I actually did arrest you…"

"So you consulted on that case that involved your writing and then…?" Jane asked before those two could start some lovey-dovey argument about their first meeting, even though Beckett didn't seem like the type for public displays of affection. But Jane preferred to err on the side of caution.

"Then I fell in love with Detective Beckett… as a muse for my new books," Castle added after a deliberate pause because he couldn't help teasing Kate a little, and he met her glare with a huge grin.

"He's writing books about _you_?" Jane asked, a little appalled at the thought of such an invasion of privacy.

_Oh, it's so not about the books anymore_, Castle thought while looking at Kate. At this point, he wasn't even sure whether it ever had been. But he doubted that Kate would want him to tell Rizzoli that he had fallen so hard for that woman sitting next to him that he still hadn't reached the bottom and probably never would.

Kate met Rizzoli's glance via the rear-view mirror. "You get used to it," she said.

Castle raised his eyebrows. "Excuse me? Do I need to remind you again who has a membership in the Nook Shipper fan club? And that was even before we graduated to the big leagues."

Not sure she knew what they were talking about or even wanted to know, Jane said, "Okay, I'm out."

"Me too," Kate added, finally parking the car in front of the morgue.

"Anyway, I can send you a signed collection of my Nikki Heat series once this is over if you like," Castle offered when they got out of the car.

Jane frowned. "You are writing about your professional relationship with Detective Beckett, right?"

"Um, sure, what else would I be writing about?" Castle replied weakly because he had been caught a little of guard by that question.

Kate sighed, knowing exactly why Rizzoli had asked that question. "She's not a stripper even though her name makes her sound like one," she told the fellow detective before entering the morgue.

Finally, Castle caught on. "Oh no, Nikki is a much more complex character than that. Still, the books are rated rather R than PG because, you see, Nikki meets that ruggedly handsome reporter that…"

"Castle!"

He smiled apologetically at Rizzoli before hurrying to follow Kate inside.

Lanie and Maura were already waiting for them. "Hey Lanie, what do you got for us?" Kate asked her friend.

"We gave Detective Frost's clothes to the lab for analysis because we found a small stain on his jacket that was probably transferred there by the killer. The lab identified it as heavy fuel oil," Lanie said, pointing to the clothes that were now sealed in an evidence bag.

"Oil?" Kate repeated because she didn't know what to make of that right away.

"It's mostly used in ships' engine rooms," Maura explained.

"So one of our terrorists could be working as an engineer?" Jane guessed.

"It's possible or their hide-out could simply have gotten them into contact with the substance," Lanie replied.

"Like a warehouse in the abandoned parts of the harbor or an old factory," Castle mused.

Kate sighed. "Got quite a lot of those in the New York area."

"But it's a smaller haystack in which to look for our needle," Castle argued.

"There might be a way to make it even smaller," Maura said. "There were also some spores on the clothes that the lab identified as stachybotrys chartarum."

"Bless you," Castle joked before Jane could say anything.

"It's a specific form of mold," Maura explained. "There might be records about recent mold infestations in the city or in any case, you're probably looking for a building with water damage. That could help you to further narrow down your search area."

Jane remembered that Maura had once before identified a building like this and she had learned long ago to trust Maura on this stuff even if it sounded weird or even disgusting. "Okay, great, you should better come back to the precinct with us to take care of that… mold thingy," she said.

Maura nodded and Beckett also looked a little more confident that they were finally closing in on their guys. But before they could get moving again, Jane's cell phone started ringing. "Rizzoli."

"_Hey Jane, any news?"_ It was Korsak.

"Looks like Frost uncovered a terrorist plot, but we're on it. We'll get them, Vince," Jane promised him as much as herself.

"_Good, keep me posted, Jane. Oh, and is Dr. Isles there with you?"_

Jane frowned. "Yes, why?"

"_A Dr. Erica Kingston has been calling the precinct. She says she can't reach the Doc, but needs an answer from her whether she'll accept the Carter Jefferson Grant she's been awarded."_

Jane suddenly remembered how Maura had acted weird, or weirder than usual, yesterday morning and had refused to take a call she'd gotten. But when the news of Frost's death had turned Jane's world upside down, she had all but forgotten about her friend's behavior. Now, however, she had a really bad feeling about that. "Um, I'll get back to you, Korsak," she said and hung up.

"Did Detective Korsak have any news?" Maura asked when she saw that Jane was looking at her.

"Yes, he said that you've been awarded a… Carter Jefferson Grant."

Kate didn't look any wiser than Jane felt, but Lanie seemed impressed. "The Carter Jefferson Grant? Way to go, girl!"

Since it was in her nature to always be polite, even though she felt pretty sick right now, Maura smiled at the fellow medical examiner. "Thank you."

Jane's eyes narrowed because that only confirmed her suspicion that this wasn't news to Maura.

Castle meanwhile followed Lanie's lead. "That's awesome. Would you mind if I used that for my next book?" he asked, always eager for new exotic places for Nikki and Rook to discover. Sending them to Paris had been fun, so why not try out the next continent?

"And how would you know about this?" Kate asked him, looking skeptic.

"Hey, I'm an author, give me some credit. I research a lot of things, which is why I know that the Carter Jefferson Grant normally only goes to some fancy European doctors."

Jane folded her arms in annoyance. "Yeah, then why don't you all enlighten me as well?" she asked, but she only looked at Maura.

Maura fidgeted a little, feeling as if she might be on the verge of a panic attack. This was certainly not how she had planned to tell Jane. "It's a spearheading global initiative for the improvement of medical care in developing countries, especially targeting poor and orphaned children in Africa."

"What?" Jane stared at her. "What in the world would you want with African kids? You work with dead bodies, Maura!" she emphasized, pointing around the morgue. "You almost start hyperventilating every time you have to take care of a living one!"

"Yes, because it's scary, but I also told you that it's very rewarding for me. And I've been to Africa before with _Médecins Sans Frontières_ and during that time I felt like I was making a difference. When I applied for the Carter Jefferson Grant, I felt like I needed that again," Maura desperately tried to explain.

But Jane frowned. "Oh, so working with the Boston Police Department is too mundane for you now? Are we not _français_ enough for you?"

"That is not what I said, Jane! But when I applied for this grant, you and I weren't even speaking anymore."

That took the wind out of her sails for a second because Jane was forced to remember that awful couple of weeks after she had shot Maura's father and had gotten tangled up in that Internal Affairs investigation – not to mention that both of them had almost died before they'd made up again. Still, that didn't explain why Maura had kept this a secret.

"But now we are speaking again, so why didn't you tell me?" Jane asked.

Kate suddenly had a gut feeling that she and Castle might have a similar discussion in the near future and was about to intercede when her cell phone did the job for her. She checked the caller ID and said, "Hey Ryan, what's up?"

"_Looks like we've finally got something. You know that there were no fitting ER reports so far, but I just got a call from the Presbyterian. They've admitted a veterinary nurse who says that her practice was attacked by three men with guns. Apparently, she was too scared to come forward sooner."_

Kate felt a surge of new energy as she always did whenever they uncovered a new lead. "Is she still at the hospital?" she asked quickly.

"_Yes, and I've also got the address of her practice," _Ryan said and added after a short pause, _"Should I tell our friends from NCIS?" _

"Are they with you at the precinct?" Kate asked.

"_Yep, their colleague on the East coast just came through with the address of the internet café that was used to send the email to Umar's laptop."_

Kate sighed. They had three possible leads to check out. Usually, she would have headed for the vet's practice first, in the vain hope of finding that their terrorists were still there. Then she would have left Ryan and Esposito to secure the crime scene and would have gone to talk to the nurse before then swinging by the internet café as well. But since they had so many investigators to spare on this case, that course of action would not only be inefficient, but downright childish.

_Time to play nice, Kate_. "Okay, give the vet's address to our new fed friends. Castle and I will go to the hospital and you and Espo can check out that internet café."

Ryan seemed a little surprised at first, but then he said, _"Will do,"_ and hung up.

"Good news?" Castle asked, sensing that Kate's mood had changed from tense and irritable to energetic and determined – which it always did when she got a new lead. She reminded him of a bloodhound that way and a darn sexy one at that.

"Yes, we now know why we didn't find any proof that our missing terrorists went to an ER to get medical assistance for the guy Detective Frost shot at. Apparently, they decided to swing by a veterinary practice instead to avoid immediate detection," Kate relayed what she had just learned from Ryan.

"We'll go talk to the witness and NCIS will check out the scene," she told Castle and then looked at Rizzoli. "Perhaps you should just sit this one out." She was sympathetic to Rizzoli's feelings of shock and anger because her friend was leaving for Africa without even bothering to tell her first. But Kate also couldn't use such distractions right now and frankly, neither could Rizzoli.

Still, she seemed about to protest, but Kate didn't let her. "Thanks, Lanie," was everything she said before leaving the morgue with Castle on her heels.

"Knock 'em dead, girl," Lanie replied and then the last thing Kate heard before exiting the building was how her friend turned to Rizzoli and Dr. Isles and said, "If you two need a referee for a catfight, I'll be in my office."

* * *

A/N: I borrowed the grant idea from _Grey's Anatomy_ and I tried to make the whole evidence stuff sound plausible ;) Thanks to Tamerhelm85, blue eyes04, Insertisernamehere, briwd, thebluninja and Marcus S. Lazarus for their reviews so far!


	15. Chapter 14

A/N: Another NCIS chapter today, but if you believe Gary Glasberg's comments about the season 11 opener, it doesn't look all that bad for Tiva anymore, now does it? Anyway, sorry it's rather short (my master thesis absolutely refuses to write itself), but thanks to all of you for staying with me and this story!

* * *

When Detective Ryan gave them the address of the veterinary practice and told them that Detective Beckett had suggested they check it out on their own (which certainly came as a surprise since she seemed like the kind of woman who always needed to be in control of everything), Deeks was suddenly very glad that he had been smart enough to rent a car when he'd landed at JFK.

Of course he hadn't expected to get in the middle of a homicide investigation. He had only wished to be more flexible in his 'Find Kensi' mission. But it certainly came in handy, now that they had to cooperate with the East coast NCIS guys and he was the only one with wheels – which put him in the driver's seat.

Tony realized that as well and immediately disliked it. "Wait, shouldn't we decide who runs this op first?" he asked when they headed towards the car.

"I guess you think that should be you since you're the agents who don't hang at the beach all day?" Deeks replied.

"Well, yeah," Tony nodded.

Deeks looked from him to his female partner who, admittedly, was pretty hot. "She looks like she's at the beach a lot."

Ziva raised her eyebrows. "I'm from Israel. Israel is a desert."

"Well, lot's of sand there then, right?" Deeks replied and shrugged. "Anyway, I'm driving so…"

Kensi rolled her eyes and looked at Ziva. "What do you say we leave these idiots here and go on our own?"

Ziva was surprised, but not negatively so. "Fine by me," she said.

Kensi smiled at this woman she didn't really know, but aside from Nell, who was more at home in the think tank department, she was always the only girl on the entire playground. So in a way, it felt good to meet another female agent who seemed just as unwilling to accept that guys liked to think that they made all the rules.

She turned to her partner. "Give me the keys, Deeks."

Deeks frowned. "Ah, you see, I'm used to your driving, but remember what happens when other people drive with you, Kensi? They get car sick like Callen."

Tony laughed. "Don't worry about me. I survived _her_ driving as well," he pointed at Ziva.

"Huh, must be a thing with beautiful women," Deeks said. "Are you another daddy's girl and your father taught you how to drive by just putting you behind the wheel and showing you where the gas pedal is?"

Ziva hated herself for it, but the mere offhand mentioning of her father made her feel as if Deeks had put a knife through her gut. She tried to hide it, but she couldn't keep her hands from clenching into fists for a few seconds.

"No, it was my mother," she still forced herself to reply.

"Well, guess they didn't have many traffic laws in Israel either way," Deeks said with a shrug.

"Hey, you done now?" Tony asked angrily and took a step forward that brought him between Deeks and Ziva. Obviously, that L.A. cop couldn't know that Ziva had only just lost her father, but why did he have to snoop around in her private life in the first place?

Kensi sensed that her dear partner had once again managed to put his foot into his mouth and snatched the car keys from him. "You have to excuse him," she said to the other two NCIS agents. "I'm still trying to house-train him."

"Oh, yeah, very funny, Kens," Deeks replied, but for the sake of his health he decided to let her drive. After all, she was driving most of the time in L.A., too. Riding shotgun was a small price to pay to make her happy or at least less irritable.

But when he was about to open the passenger's door, Kensi stopped him. "Does your car have a navigational system?"

"Do I look like I'm paid what I'm worth?" Deeks asked in return, but then added, "On second thought, don't answer that."

"Fine, but I still need a navigator," Kensi admitted because driving around New York aimlessly seemed way worse than to confess that she had no idea where to go.

"I've been to New York before," Ziva said. She had still been with Mossad and had run anti-terror ops with the late Jenny Sheppard, which almost made it seem like a different life to her now.

Tony looked aghast. "Really? Then why did you let me play your tour guide last night?"

Ziva smiled a little. "Because you seemed to enjoy yourself so much."

"Yes, well, it's not my first time around either," Deeks interjected, not willing to give up his shotgun position that easily.

Ziva met Deeks' gaze without hesitation. It had been sweet of Tony to try and protect her, but she still preferred not to need any protection except her own. "I also have a photographic memory," she said.

Kensi laughed. "And we have a winner. Sorry, Deeks."

Now that they had finally settled the seating arrangement, they all got into the car, and a couple of traffic violations and near-accidents later, the car screeched to a halt in front of the veterinary practice that looked pretty much deserted.

"You wanna play roshambo to decide who takes the front?" Deeks asked.

Kensi rolled her eyes. "We'll take the back," she told Ziva, who nodded and got out of the car.

"Hey, since Sam and Callen aren't here, that was our chance to take point, Kensi!" Deeks complained while Tony followed his partner.

Kensi turned around to him, and she was suddenly very serious because if Deeks was still behaving like a little child – sitting in the back seat and asking 'Are we there yet?' every five minutes – how on earth could she even consider having kids with that guy? Not that she really was considering that.

"Really, Deeks? You know this stops being cute at some point, right? It's time to grow up a little." Having said that, she left the car and Deeks had no choice but to follow her without comment.

Tony and Ziva drew their guns and silently headed for the front door. "You want to do the honors?" Tony whispered, figuring that a surge of female empowerment, thanks to a good old lock pick, might be just what his partner needed right now. Plus, she was way better at it than he was.

Ziva nodded and pulled some lock picks out of her right shoe. Tony shook his head, grinning. You just had to love that woman. Without further ado, Ziva went to work and a couple of seconds later they heard the silent click that told them that she had been successful. Ziva put the lock picks away and pulled out her gun again. After they had exchanged a nod, Ziva rammed her foot against the door and they both surged inside, weapons raised. They heard Deeks and Kensi following their lead at the back entrance.

Ziva quickly scanned the receptionist's desk and the waiting area and called, "Clear!"

From back inside the laboratory and storage rooms Deeks and Kensi also shouted, "Clear!"

Tony burst through the door of the first examination room and lowered his gun. "I got a body," he announced.

Ziva joined him and also saw a man in a lab coat lying in his own blood on the floor next to the examination table that was still littered with bandages, disinfectants and other medical supplies.

"Must be the vet."

Kensi and Deeks appeared in the doorway. "Guess they didn't want to pay the bill," the latter said.

"And they didn't stay long. But it looks like some of them went through the storage rooms first, looking for something they could use," Kensi added.

Tony put on a glove and carefully lifted a bloody bandage form the exam table. "And either this belongs to one unhappy puppy or we've got ourselves some DNA."

"I'll call Detective Beckett and tell her to send an ME over here," Ziva said, kneeling next to the body.

"Yes, in the meantime," Tony said, looking at their L.A. friends, "I can give you a crash course on how to bag and tag."

"You do know that we're working with crime scenes every day, too, right?" Kensi replied, shaking her head.

"Yeah, but he does have a point," Deeks admitted, inclining his head. "We mostly just shoot the bad guys and then let other people handle the mess."

Kensi sighed. "Just grab a bag and start collecting evidence, Deeks."

"Really? Can't I just take the pictures? I always thought I'd make a great photographer."


	16. Chapter 15

A/N: What can I say? My heart goes out to the family and friends of Lee Thompson Young!

* * *

**Chapter 15**

"Great, now Beckett has found a reason to bench me," Jane complained once everyone had left and she and Maura were standing alone in the morgue.

"I'm sure, she'll keep you in the loop," Maura suggested carefully.

Jane sighed. "Let's just go back to the precinct and try to work an angle with that mold thingy of yours."

"It's not _my_ mold, Jane," Maura said while they left the building and called for a cab.

"Yeah, well, you should better get used to it because I'm sure there will be lots of mold in Africa," Jane replied.

Maura was about to respond, but she didn't want to argue in front of the taxi driver who had just stopped to pick them up, so they rode back to the precinct in tense silence. Thankfully, nobody else who was working on the case was back yet because they were all following up on a lead. So they had the part of the bullpen that belonged to Detective Beckett and her team to themselves.

"I tried to tell you, Jane," Maura started anew.

Jane raised her eyebrows. "Oh, you mean yesterday morning? Sure, nothing says 'Hey, Jane, I quit my job to go to Africa' like giving someone an antique gun. What was that, anyway? A bribe?"

She had known in her gut that something was going on when Maura had given her that gift, but God, she couldn't deal with this right now. She had to find those bastards that had killed Frost and she needed Maura to do it; needed Maura to be her partner, her other partner, in a way that Frost had never been able to. But hey, who was she kidding here? Obviously, she wasn't smart and sophisticated enough for Dr. Maura Isles – not that Jane hadn't always known that.

"No! What would I bribe you for? It's not as if I need your permission…"

"Obviously not, because you didn't even bother to tell me, let alone ask me. Tell me, when would you have let me know if Korsak hadn't told me? Would you have sent me a postcard a couple of weeks from now? Or maybe an invitation to your funeral once you'd have come down with malaria?"

"Actually, malaria is not necessarily fatal. Only infections caused by Plasmodium falciparum or Plasmodium vivax can progress to coma or death while…"

"God, Maura, I don't care!" Jane yelled and ran a hand through her hair in exasperation. "But you don't get it, do you? All you can do is hide behind that encyclopedia crap nobody but you gives a shit about!" She knew she was being harsh, but she was too angry to care.

Maura tried to remain impervious to Jane's hurtful comments and to convince herself that her friend was only saying these things because she was mad at her, but it wasn't easy. It was far easier to believe that the anger actually made Jane reveal how she really felt; that when they were really being honest with each other, their difference were simply far too great.

"You know, Jane, perhaps you're right. Perhaps that is why I wanted to go to Africa because these kids… they appreciate what I could do for them."

Jane snorted. "Oh, I'm sure they'll just love to listen to you going on and on about which mosquitoes are deadlier than others while they're slowly dying from starvation."

"Don't mock them, Jane!" Maura insisted, beginning to feel a little anger herself now. Why did Jane always have to be so scathingly sarcastic? Maura hated that even when they were not arguing.

"Hunger is the world's No. 1 health risk and you have never even been there to see them starve!"

Oh, so suddenly she was the guilty one here? Jane shook her head. "No, as the daughter of a plumber and a stay-at-home mum I couldn't just fly to Africa with some fancy French doctors. But I didn't need to because there were kids in my neighborhood who didn't have enough to eat. But for you it must have felt as if you had to go to a different continent to see that. Is that what this is all about? The guilt of the rich people who deign to hand out some bread to the poor?"

"No!" Maura protested, feeling affronted and more than a little shaken.

Did Jane really believe that she thought of herself as superior? Well, obviously she was more financially secure, had a higher academic degree and a better taste in clothing, but despite all that there was so much she didn't have and couldn't do, while Jane… she was beautiful and intelligent, she could make jokes other people actually laughed about and she was so very brave.

"I do realize that I'm in the good fortune to be able to help other people, which is why I do it and do it gladly. But just because you only went to junior college and never had a trust fund, you don't have to make it sound like you came from the gutter, Jane. You have a family that loves you and a job that you love, and the only reason you don't have a partner in your life is that you scare them all away with your tomboyish and bossy detective attitude and refuse to let anyone see who you really are."

Jane couldn't believe what she was hearing. Did Maura really want to go there and compare who had the more abysmal record when it came to dates and picking out potential partners? And since when was she the scary one – the ice queen, who gave you a freaking headache if you tried to figure her out and that was on a good day? Oh no, Jane was the simple one, but Maura… well, if Jane knew what this woman was or was not, she wouldn't be feeling as if somebody had pulled the rug from under her right now.

"Oh, _I_ scare them all away? What about you, Dr. Isles? Your dates can't even finish dinner with you because they run off to call their doctors to ask them whether they've ever even heard of some unpronounceable congenital disease you've diagnosed them with! So how many people do you have in your life who can stand being around you for more than just a couple of hours? Not even your biological mother wants any contact with you!"

Maura had expected and tried to prepare herself for a lot of reactions from Jane. But she had never thought that Jane, her best friend, her… person, for a lack of a better definition, would prey on that wound that she had suffered only so recently and had not even begun to learn to live with. Maura had quite possibly never felt so alone as in this moment and how much that suddenly bothered her frightened her even more.

For a second, Jane looked just as shocked, but Maura didn't wait for her to say anything else.

"Well, I might not be easy, but at least I'm not running around shooting people! And anyway, if I'm so annoying, then why are you even upset that I'm going to Africa?"

And they were back with Jane shooting Maura's father, only that Maura always failed to mention that Paddy Doyle would have shot her as well if he'd been given the chance. How convenient. Or maybe Maura just didn't care. Obviously she didn't care enough not to go to Africa…

"I'm not upset," Jane replied harshly. "Go! Go to Africa, for all I care! Go save the world with your Latin and your Greek and whatever!"

"Fine, I'll go," Maura decided and then they were both quiet for a while. "But… I can't go right now," Maura finally said.

"No," Jane conceded. "We have to find your mold first, so we can get those bastards. For Frost."

"For Frost," Maura agreed.

"So… go do your stuff. I'll… get something to eat," Jane said and left for the precinct kitchen.

She opened the fridge, but once she saw all the food, she realized that she had entirely lost her appetite. So she closed the fridge again and punched the door for good measure. But it didn't make her feel better. It made her feel like crap. Her life had begun to unravel the minute she'd gotten the news about Frost, but now it had spun so widely out of control that Jane had no idea how to regain her footing.

Maura meanwhile hadn't yet been able to start her research because she was too busy breathing in a bag to stop hyperventilating. She felt thrown back to when Jane had shot Paddy Doyle, only somehow this was even worse. Back then she had been angry with Jane, yes, but mostly she just hadn't known how to approach her again. And at the very least, she had thought that she knew what was going on. But right now… of course this hadn't been how she had planned to tell Jane and she probably had a right to be angry, but she wouldn't even let her explain! And all those horrible things Jane had said? It seemed she really didn't have to go to Africa to feel oceans apart.

One of the other cops, who had so far politely pretended not to hear them, dared to approach her. "Um, are you okay, Miss?"

Maura forced herself to put away the bag and look up. "Thank you, Officer. I'm fine," she said and as always she utterly failed at lying.

* * *

A/N: A little intense and angsty. Sorry about that, but it seemed fitting.


	17. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

"So, do you think Rizzoli and Isles are more than just friendly coworkers?" Castle asked while they were on route from the morgue to the Presbyterian.

"I don't think that's any of your business," Kate replied, keeping her eyes on the traffic.

Castle shrugged. "No, but when has that ever stopped me before? And hey, it's all in the name of character research. And you have to admit that Detective Rizzoli seemed pretty upset at the prospect of Dr. Isles leaving for Africa."

Kate sighed because she really didn't feel like she was in any position to voice an opinion about that. But obviously, Castle wasn't ready to let it go just yet, and she knew from experience that whenever he had a crazy theory, the best way to get it over with was to humor him. Otherwise he would bug her for the rest of the day.

"But that only proves that they are more friends than coworkers. I would be sorry, too, to watch Lanie leave."

"Yes, but Rizzoli wasn't just sorry, she was mad. But I guess you're right. That could have been because Dr. Isles hadn't told her earlier," Castle said, glancing at Kate and trying not to be too obvious about it. "I mean, if you're in a relationship, any kind of relationship, you talk about these things, right?"

Kate thought about getting out her gumball and jumping a couple of red lights to get to the hospital faster, but that would have probably given her away. So she settled for a non-committal, "Guess so."

Castle sighed. He had never minded the whole 'peel away one layer at a time' thing because it had wrapped Kate up in an intriguing mystery, and he loved solving mysteries. It's what he was good at, although it had always been more satisfying if Kate had opened up to him voluntarily. But right now, instead of peeling away the layers one by one, he was tempted to take a knife. Only that didn't seem like a smart idea while she was driving.

"Well, it was worth the try."

Now Kate did turn her head to look at him. "Wait, did you just try to set me up?"

Castle shrugged. "Maybe, is there something to set you up for?"

Kate shook her head and focused on finding them a parking spot in the parking lot of the Presbyterian. "Am I the only one having a déjà-vu here?"

"Well, if we are having a déjà-vu, then I guess my next line is to offer to get us some coffee from the Starbucks across the street," Castle replied.

They both got out of the car and Kate hesitated because refusing again seemed just as suspicious as accepting a coffee only not to drink it. God, all this paranoia was giving her a headache. "Sure, I'll take a decaf," she said eventually.

But Castle frowned. "You haven't changed your coffee order for the last four years: Grande skim latte, two pumps sugar free vanilla."

"So, you want me to give you a pat on the back for remembering my coffee order?" Kate asked.

"Well, if you throw in a foot rub, I'm in."

Kate shook her head and turned around to head for the ER entrance.

"Hey, what about the coffee?" Castle asked while he hurried to follow her.

"I'm good, Castle," Kate replied with a sigh and then asked the first nurse she met to tell her where she could find Clara Wakefield, since that was the witness' name Ryan had texted her.

The nurse accompanied them towards a blond woman in her mid-forties, who was sitting in a hospital bed, and it looked like a resident had just finished stitching up a wound on her left arm. "Ms. Wakefield? I'm Detective Kate Beckett, NYPD. This is Richard Castle. We would like to speak with you about what happened at your practice."

The veterinary nurse looked a little scared, but she nodded. Most people who had never been in contact with the police before reacted like that. "Yes, of course."

"What happened to your arm?" Castle asked in a voice that was warm and pleasant. He had always been good at connecting with people.

"Oh, I cut myself when I tried to hide. At first, I tried to take care of it myself. I live alone, you know. But then I realized that it was so deep that I needed stitches, so a couple of hours ago I finally came here. I know I should have called the police, but I was scared…"

"That's okay, Ms. Wakefield. Could you just tell us what happened from the beginning?" Kate asked softly, trying to reassure the woman that she had nothing to be afraid of, even though, technically, she had hindered their investigation by waiting so long to come forward.

But her politeness had the intended effect because the witness seemed to relax a little. "Yes, of course. So… Tom and I… I mean, Dr. Byrne and I were the only ones in the practice because it was already past midnight. But we had gotten a call that there was an emergency, a dog that had eaten chocolate or something like that, and we were the practice that was on call that night. I was in the lab preparing for our new patient when I heard them burst through the door."

Since Ms. Wakefield made a short pause, Kate asked carefully, "Were you able to get a look at them?"

"Yes," the elder woman replied silently. "I went to see what all the noise was about. There were three men, one of them badly injured, and the other two had weapons. One of them held his gun to Tom's head and told him… he would shoot him if he didn't save their friend."

"Can you describe the men, Ms. Wakefield?"

"I don't know. They were big and the one with the gun had dark hair and a three-day beard I think. But… when I saw the gun, I hid in the cooling chamber next to the lab because it can be locked from the inside. I fell and cut myself, but I could still hear them yell… One of them searched the lab and tried to open the door to the cooling chamber as well, but when it didn't give, he gave up. Then… I heard a loud bang and then they left. I was really cold, so I left the chamber and crawled to the window to make sure they were gone."

"Did you see them drive away?" Kate asked, hoping for some useful information.

Ms. Wakefield nodded. "Yes, they sped right off."

"Did you see the license plate or remember anything else about the car?"

"No, I didn't see the plate. It was pretty dark, but… it was a big car, like a van… and when they passed a streetlight it looked like there was some weird writing on the side of the van."

Before Kate could follow up on that, Castle had his smart phone ready. "Did it happen to look something like this?" he asked, showing it to her.

"Yes, yes, that's it," Ms Wakefield nodded, obviously relieved that she had told them something helpful.

Castle showed Kate the display of his phone. "It's Arabic," he said and they shared a triumphant look. A van with Arabic writing on the side would mean a huge break-through in their search for the car.

"Okay, Ms. Wakefield, what did you do next?" Kate turned back to her witness again.

But the woman looked a lot paler suddenly. "I… I went to check on Tom… and oh God… he was dead. They had shot him! And I… I just left him lying there…" She stopped and was obviously fighting with tears.

Kate took in the red rim around her eyes and her shaking hands and together with the way she had been talking about the vet, it gave her a gut feeling that the two of them had been more than just coworkers, even more than friends. So she reached for the woman's hand. "It's okay. Having someone taken away from you this violently, it's very hard. So don't worry, you're doing great. There's just one more thing. Would you be willing to sit down with a sketch artist and try to describe that man with the beard you saw?"

At her touch, Ms. Wakefield calmed down again and nodded. "Of course."

"Thank you, I'll have someone come down right away," Kate said and got up.

"Detective Beckett?"

"Yes?"

"The doctors will release me soon, but I… I don't really feel safe at home anymore. Could you…?"

Kate doubted that the nurse was still in danger because it sounded like the terrorists hadn't even noticed that she was there. But she sympathized with the woman and it couldn't hurt to be extra careful. "I'll make sure someone has an eye on you," she promised her.

"Thank you, Detective."

Once she and Castle had moved out of earshot, Kate reached for her phone. "I'll call the precinct and tell them to send a sketch artist down here and to make sure that the guys on patrol tonight will drive up and down her street a couple of times."

"Sure, take your time," Castle nodded, and during her phone call Kate lost him out of her sight. But once she was done, she found him waiting outside the hospital. He offered her a cup of coffee

Kate raised an eyebrow. "What's that?" she asked.

"Grande skim latte, two pumps sugar free vanilla, and make that decaf," Castle recited the coffee order with a smile on his face.

Kate eyed the coffee cup with a certain amount of suspicion. "And no conditions to go with that?"

"Just one," Castle admitted.

"Shoot," Kate said, trying to prepare herself for the worst.

"That you continue to put up with me although I can be a pain in the butt sometimes," Castle replied, his smile turning into something softer. "I know this is a challenging case and if you feel that you wanna switch to decaf, then that's what you'll get. But caffeine or no caffeine, I'm not worried because you really are remarkable, Kate."

Even though she had heard him say that a couple of times by now, it still made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside. And each and every time she couldn't help but wonder why, from all the beautiful women he had been with, she was the one he was saying these words to.

"Well, you're not so bad yourself, Castle," she answered, once again failing to match his eloquence, but when she took the coffee from him, her fingers lingered on his for a couple of seconds.

"You see Gates anywhere?" Castle whispered with a mischievous glimmer in his eyes.

"No."

"Good," he said and leaned in to kiss her.

* * *

A/N: And another chapter without Castle knowing… but hey, it might just be in the next one ;)


	18. Chapter 17

**A/N: Okay, so here we go…**

* * *

**Chapter 17**

At the precinct later that afternoon, it got really crowded in front of the murder board, but they had no other choice since everyone had to present their findings.

"The nurse told us that our three suspects held the vet at gun point before shooting him once they no longer required his services. She remembers seeing them drive away in a van that had Arabic writing on the side, so we could update our APB for a white Ford Econoline van with some kind of Arabic slogan on the side," Kate started.

"We like to call that a BOLO," Tony interjected before she could continue.

Kate looked at him irritably. "You can call it whatever you like as long as it helps us find that car."

Turning to face everyone again, she said, "The nurse also sat down with a sketch artist and gave us this picture of one of the three men she saw." She put the drawing of a dark haired, Arabic-looking man with a three-day beard on the board.

Esposito got up from his desk and joined her. "Which happens to look a lot like one of the photos we got from the security camera that the owner of the internet café had only just recently installed." He pinned the photo next to the sketch and they were an obvious match.

"We ran it through facial recognition. No criminal record, but we got a hit with the standard DMV search," Ryan added. "His name is Hakim Chalid. He works as a delivery guy for Arabic supermarkets in the tri-state area. I talked to his supervisor and he told me that Chalid called in sick the day before yesterday. Hasn't been seen since."

"But he's using their delivery van, right? Don't they have GPS?" Kate asked.

Esposito shook his head. "No, they are more the kind of establishment that performs ritual slaughters of animals according to Islamic dietary laws in their backyard," he explained. "So we checked out Chalid's last known address, but the apartment was empty and there's been no credit card or cell phone activity."

"Guess they are not that stupid after all," Deeks commented.

"Speaking of a smart kid," Tony said, taking the stage. "Chalid and his gang left the vet in such a hurry that they left us some DNA behind. We asked your charming Dr. Parish to speed up the analysis, and it only cost me my favorite Baseball signed by Mr. 'A-rod' Alex Rodriguez himself to get her to do it."

Kate suppressed a grin. "Yah, Lanie doesn't like to be rushed."

"Anyway," Tony continued with a sniff. "The good news is, it's not puppy DNA. The bad news is we only got half of a hit in the system."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jane asked, trying to hide her annoyance that she was the only one who had nothing to report.

"Well, our wounded guy himself was not in the system, just like Chalid, but DNA says that his brother is."

Tony made a movement as if to press the remote control that would make the picture pop up on screen, but then he remembered that there was no control and no screen. Ziva gave him an amused smile and handed him the print-out version of the photo that he put next to the other two.

"Meet Nadim Samet."

"It says there that he's dead," Deeks pointed out.

"Yes, Samet had affiliations with Hezbollah and VEVAK. He was considered a public enemy to Israel and would have been terminated by Mossad," Ziva explained. "But since he was also suspected of involvement in an attack that killed a couple of US Marines, Mossad cooperated with the CIA. They send a group of Navy SEALs to uncover his hide-out and take him and his men out."

Deeks frowned. "Uh, Navy SEALs, my favorite type of buddies to hang out with. The only thing that's worse than a Navy SEAL is an ex-Navy SEAL whose favorite pastime is folding little paper dolls."

"Oh, you probably mean origami, the traditional Japanese art of paper folding," Maura suggested helpfully.

"Just ignore him. He's still learning to play with other kids," Kensi said to try to get them back on track. "So, that all sounds like highly classified information."

"Are you worried that you don't have a high enough security clearance, Special Agent Blye?" Tony asked her mockingly.

Kensi laughed. "Believe me, if anyone in this room needs to worry about his security clearance, it certainly isn't me."

"Well, the truth is, nobody cares anyway, because that guy is history and since he's no longer a threat, nobody even bothered to keep tabs on his younger brother. All we know is that he's probably called Zarif."

Castle studied the murder board that was now a way more interesting sight than yesterday.

"So, Zarif witnesses how his brother gets killed by Navy SEALs. He decides to follow in Nadim's footsteps and to take advantage of the fact that nobody even cares about him. So he travels to the US under a false ID and takes his time to find others who think like him and have also not yet been red-flagged as terrorists. Once he found Petty Officer Umar, his path towards taking revenge on the Navy for his brother's death was clear. Only he didn't expect Umar to double-cross him by hiding the instructions and blueprints, and he probably didn't plan on getting shot by a Boston police detective either."

He looked at everyone gathered around him, but ended up focusing on Kate.

"That's a surprisingly sound theory, Castle," she nodded. "You happen to have an idea where we can find him, too?"

"Well, I can't do all of the work now, can I?"

"Detective Rizzoli and I have identified certain areas of the city with recent infestations of stachybotrys chartarum, and I am currently cross-referencing those with the likelihood of getting into contact with heavy fuel oil, but we'll probably need more parameters to narrow down the search," Maura reported, and Kate couldn't fail to notice the sudden distance between her and Rizzoli.

But this was neither the time nor the place to comment on that. They had received a lot of new intel, now they needed to convert that into action. "Okay, so let's…"

"Woah, wait a second there! You haven't called on us yet," Deeks complained, actually raising his hand. Kensi felt the sudden urge to pretend that she had absolutely no idea who that infantile guy was, who just happened to be sitting next to her.

Kate frowned. "I thought you checked out the vet, together with Agents David and DiNozzo?"

"Oh, we did and we had a blast, really. But while they went to take care of that DNA stuff, we traced back the last call that was made to the practice."

The minute the nurse had told her about that emergency patient, Kate had at least suspected that to be bogus. So she hazarded a guess. "Another burn phone?"

"Nope, it traced back to one Matthew Lewis, who owns a beautiful and very healthy German Shepherd. Cute dog, but not as cute as my Monty."

"Is there a point to this?" Kate asked, a hint of annoyance in her voice, and turned to Deeks' partner for help.

Kensi understood Beckett's irritation. Deeks was an acquired taste. "Yes, apparently Chalid and whoever the third guy was weren't creative enough to come up with anything on their own, so they stopped the next best dog owner they met and gave Matthew Lewis a hundred bugs to make a call, pretending that his dog had an emergency, and to give them the address of the vet practice on call that night."

"So they shot the vet, but paid the dog owner?" Castle repeated. "Guess they really are the new kids on the block. Only the terrorist version. God, I hope they're not singing terrorists."

"Or Samet is the leader and since he was busy bleeding out at the time, the other two didn't know what else to do," Tony suggested.

"Anyway, did you bring him in?" Kate asked, looking at Kensi and Deeks.

"You mean the German Shepherd?" the latter asked, just to tease her a little.

"No, the owner!"

Kensi shook her head. "No, he didn't know anything."

"He didn't know anything?" Kate repeated incredulously.

"No, it was dark and they just rolled down the passenger window. It only took them about a minute."

Kate really began to doubt that these feds had any idea what they were doing. "He took money from a bunch of dubious looking guys, driving a van with Arabic writing on the side, to make a bogus call to a doctor. He must have had an agenda."

"Yeah, he needed the money," Kensi replied.

"Did you double-check that?"

"Of course we checked it," Kensi confirmed, not liking where this was going. She had so many better things to do than to listen to some homicide cop questioning her abilities.

"Yeah, even though Lewis has a dog, he also likes to play the ponies," Deeks added, sensing another cat fight.

Jane decided that the least she could do was to back her fellow female detective up on this. "And you didn't think to book him for, I don't know, assisting an on-going terrorist plot against this country, which basically makes him an accessory?"

Kensi sighed. God, these cops were getting on her nerves. "Hey, normally we would have brought him to the boat shed, but you don't have a boat shed, so we were forced to improvise. And for the sake of this investigation, we decided not to waste time on some guy who's only playing on the sidelines."

"Yeah, well, that wasn't your call to make," Kate insisted.

"Then whose was it? You're not the one running this show, you know."

Castle saw that Gates had turned her head and was trying to see through the window of her office to find out what was going on out there, so he took a step forward to stand between the women.

"Uh, why don't we all settle down again for a second?" he suggested, trying to let Kate know that Gates would be breathing down her neck again if she continued down that road.

Maura was glad that someone had intervened and she hurried to add, "Yes, you really should calm down, Detective Beckett. All this stress is not good for the baby."

Everyone seemed to fall silent for a second. Kate's mind went immediately blank because she refused to believe that the one 'guest', whom she had not considered to be potentially damaging to her investigation, had just busted her in front of everyone.

Castle looked from Kate to Dr. Isles and back again. "Baby? What baby? Kate?"

Jane recognized that look on Beckett's face. It was an adult version of the way she had always looked as a kid when her mother had caught her with her hand in the cookie jar after she had already brushed her teeth. "Um, Maura, I don't think this was common knowledge," she whispered, even though the damage was already done.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Maura said, quite shocked at the prospect of having revealed sensitive medical information. "It's just so obvious, so I thought…"

"Well, I didn't notice it," Tony interjected, instinctively trying to lighten the mood a bit.

"Me neither," Deeks agreed. "And may I add, it's a shame really to ruin that smoking hot body."

"Hey! Watch who you're talking to!" Esposito snapped angrily, because he'd had it with all these strangers attacking Beckett.

But Kensi had already punched Deeks in the shoulder for his unbelievably insensitive comment that made her question her own judgment.

Maura still couldn't believe that Detective Beckett could have missed the symptoms. "It's just that you're obviously dehydrated, probably from repeated vomiting; you have a hormonal imbalance that seems to affect your behavior, even though you're currently not menstruating, and you also display disorderly eating and drinking habits, all of which are consistent with the first trimester of pregnancy. But of course you should get a thorough examination to confirm…"

"Maura!" Jane hissed. "Stop. Talking."

Castle had listened to Dr. Isles' diagnosis in a sort of trance – shocked that he had known about all of that for about two days and hadn't arrived at the same conclusion. But when Dr. Isles was interrupted, he began to wake from that trance.

"Oh my god, that's why you've been throwing up! You're not sick, you're pregnant. And you knew and you didn't tell me!"

"Um, anyone else who'd like to get some coffee?" Tony suggested, clearing his throat. Everybody muttered agreement and began to leave to give Castle and Beckett some room.

Esposito and Ryan stayed the longest. "Uh, we'll be… if you… yah," was everything the latter got out before they left them alone as well.

* * *

A/N: Don't worry. Since you've waited so long for Castle to find out, I won't leave you hanging with this. But feel free to tell me if you liked it so far. I thought Maura was the perfect candidate to speed things up a bit…


	19. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

"Oh man, did you know that?" Ryan asked once he had closed the door to the break room. Their guests had all opted to leave the precinct entirely, but Ryan and Esposito preferred to stay close.

"Yes, bro, Beckett asked me to accompany her to an ultra sound," Esposito replied, shaking his head. "No, of course I didn't."

Ryan sat down. "Man, Castle and Beckett having a baby together? That's going to be one hell of a kid, that's for sure."

"It's going to be a dead one once Gates finds out," Esposito corrected him.

"God, you're right," Ryan realized. "How are they going to hide that?"

Esposito shrugged. "Beckett can't hide the pregnancy forever, but Gates can't force her to reveal the identity of the father."

"Yah, but people talk, Javi," Ryan argued.

"What people? You going to say anything?" Esposito asked.

"No!"

"Neither am I."

Ryan nodded, feeling good about that decision. They would do whatever they could to help Beckett. They'd have her back like they always did because she was their partner.

"But how is Beckett going to stay on the job if she's pregnant and having a baby?" he suddenly heard himself ask because he had never thought about this before. No, actually he had thought a lot about babies because he and Jenny had been trying to get pregnant for weeks now. But for him, having a baby had never meant to stop being a cop.

Esposito met his gaze, looking serious. "She's not, bro."

* * *

"What the hell is wrong with you, Maura? Why can't you just keep your mouth shut for once?" Jane vented her anger while they were riding down in the elevator. The NCIS agents had opted for the stairs so they were on their own.

Maura flinched a little, but at this point, Jane's anger couldn't hurt her any more than it already had. "I'm sorry. I just wanted to help and with these symptoms Detective Beckett must have already known."

Jane shook her head in exasperation. "Of course she knew, but she hadn't told the father yet, which you now ruined for her."

"How do you know that?" Maura asked.

"Well, the look of panic in her eyes when you wouldn't stop talking with everyone listening in, including her writer partner, was kind of a giveaway. You're lucky her 'hormonal imbalance' didn't make her shoot you right where you stood." Jane snorted. "It really amazes me that with all that knowledge that's stuffed in that brain of yours, you always manage to miss the important things."

Maura tried to ignore that last comment by focusing on Detective Beckett. "Oh, well, do you think I should go back and apologize?

"No, Maura. Sometimes you just have to accept that it's a lost case and move on."

Now Maura couldn't stop herself from mentioning what was really at issue here. "So is that what you're going to do with us? Call us a lost case and just move on?"

The elevator stopped and the doors opened, but Jane turned towards her before stepping outside. "Hey, I'm not the one leaving, you are! And by now I have no idea why I ever thought that to be a bad thing."

* * *

"Wow, certainly didn't see that one coming," Tony said, walking down the stairs with Ziva ahead of their L.A. colleagues.

"Neither did Detective Beckett, apparently," Ziva replied.

Tony nodded. "Yeah, but she's one tough woman. She'll handle it."

"I hope you're right, Tony. We still have a case to solve."

"Oh come on, Zee-vah. You've got to give her a little more time. I mean, a pregnancy diagnosis, that would turn your world upside down, too, wouldn't it?"

"No, because that wouldn't happen to me," Ziva said.

"Why? Because you don't want kids?" Tony asked, a little surprised.

Ziva met his gaze. "Do you?"

"Little Anthony DiNozzo's running around?" Tony mused. "Yeah, why not? I could see that." He looked at Ziva. "Do you remember when we were undercover as that married couple of assassins and you told me that we were pregnant?"

"We weren't pregnant, Tony," Ziva corrected him. "We were just pretending to be."

"Yeah, but for a moment there, it felt pretty real and I was willing to go with it. I mean, with your looks and my brains, would be a pretty good combination, don't you think?"

Ziva stared at him and for about a second she got sucked into that fantasy Tony was describing, but then she shook her head. "No."

"So, my looks and your brains?" Tony suggested.

"This is a ridiculous conversation, Tony."

Tony just smiled because he knew that for a moment there, he had made her picture it too. "Hey, you gotta prepare for these things or you'll get steamrolled like Detective Beckett."

"But I won't because I'm not having kids."

Tony frowned. "Why not?"

Ziva sighed, not really wanting to go there. But Tony looked serious and honestly interested in her answer. "Because I know how it feels to lose a sister and a brother… and a father. I do not want to know how it feels to lose a child."

Once he had made her say it, Tony could have kicked himself for not seeing that one coming. "I'm sorry, Ziva."

"Don't apologize, Tony. You know Gibbs wouldn't approve."

* * *

"Dammit, Deeks! Why do you always have to be so…" Kensi struggled to find the right words and to keep her voice down, so that the other two NCIS agents walking ahead of them wouldn't hear.

"So what? Loveable, charming and irresistible?" Deeks suggested.

"No, infantile, insensitive and infuriating!" Kensi corrected and finished her sentence.

Deeks raised his hands in defense. "Hey, you were the one who was about to start a fight with Beckett."

"That's not what I'm talking about. I mean, it's not my fault that this Doctor Isles can't keep her mouth shut."

"Okay, but now I'm a little confused here. What are we talking about then?"

Kensi shook her head. That he wasn't even aware of his behavior made it only so much worse. "That comment you made about how the pregnancy will ruin her looks. Which, by the way, would have almost gotten you into a fight with that other detective as well."

"Funny, the only one I remember hitting me is my partner," Deeks said.

"Yes, and I feel like I might just do that again."

"Well, I'm sorry, but what I said is a medical fact. It's not my fault that nature designed it that way."

That didn't exactly make Kensi feel any better. "So that is what pregnancy means to you? Women getting fat and ugly?"

"Oh, come on, Kensi. You gotta admit that it's not exactly sexy. But I'm not saying that's bad because it would be pretty weird if you were attracted to a pregnant lady because if she's pregnant, she's probably taken. And if it's your own kid in there, then it's a whole different story, anyway." Deeks shrugged.

Kensi stopped and looked at him. "Oh, really?"

"Sure."

"How so?"

"Well, it's less gross and more right. I don't know. I've never actually fathered a child before," Deeks said, shaking his head.

"That's comforting to know," Kensi said, only half joking.

Now it was Deeks who looked at her more closely. "What about you, Kensi? You seem awfully interested in pregnancy."

"I never said I was interested," Kensi denied that and started walking again.

"Actually, you kind of did. When we were undercover the other day," Deeks reminded her.

"Well, changed my mind. Women's prerogative," Kensi replied quickly because right now she was horrified at the thought of discussing this further. "So, you want coffee now or what?"

"Sure," Deeks said, but something about this conversation intrigued him and he decided to file that away for later.

* * *

Before Castle could say anything, Gates really did come out of her office. "Where did everybody go?" she asked, looking a little irritated.

"Coffee break," Castle replied before pulling Kate into the precinct kitchen with him. Right now he didn't really care about Gates. Apparently, she would stop being an issue in a couple of months anyway. Once Castle had closed all the doors, he looked at Kate who refused to meet his gaze.

"I don't even know what to say."

Kate took a breath and looked up. "That makes two of us then."

"How long have you known?" Castle asked and his face was a mask of stone.

Every time he had looked like that, it had ended badly. But who was she trying to kid here? After all, that was exactly why she hadn't told him yet. "For sure? Yesterday morning."

"And why exactly did you think it better not to mention that the, like, 500 times I asked you what was going on?"

Kate sighed. "I don't know, Castle. I don't know, okay?"

"No, it's not okay, Kate. 'I don't know' doesn't cut it," Castle replied angrily. "You're pregnant. That's our baby in there… It is _our _baby, right?"

So far, Kate had mostly felt guilty and on the defensive because yes, Castle had a right to know and she had denied him that right. But now her feelings changed to anger so fast, she almost gave herself whiplash.

"You did not seriously just ask me that!"

Castle shrugged. "Well, there must be a reason you didn't tell me. What am I supposed to think?"

"How about anything but that?" Kate said, taking a couple of steps away from him because this was deteriorating even faster than she had feared. "But oh sure, since I was the one who slept around before and who gave autographs on bare breasts, naturally, the only reason I didn't tell you right away must be that _I_ cheated on _you_."

"No, you know what, Kate?" Castle replied, standing his ground. "You don't get to hide behind my past because I've done everything right. I've done everything in my power to convince you that I'm not that guy anymore and that I love you, even though you make it exceptionally hard to love you some times. But none of it is good enough for you!"

Kate ran a hand through her hair. "Well, what do you want from me, Castle? Am I supposed to apologize to you because you love me?"

"No, I want you to love me back," Castle said, taking a step towards her after all. "I want you to open up to me. I want you not to push me away when I try to be there for you. I tried everything, Kate. I asked you what was wrong. I stopped asking. I apologized for asking. I gave you space. I told you I was there. But you just kept quiet. What was your plan, Kate? How long did you want to sit on this?"

"I told you, I don't know, Castle," Kate snapped. "I don't have any answers. I didn't plan for this. And then this case came around…"

Castle shook his head. "Oh, so now it's work again? There's always been something. My past, your mother's murder, the job… you've got to stop hiding eventually, Kate."

"Don't you dare make this about my Mom!" Kate flared up angrily. "I know I made mistakes, but I'm here now. I let her go. For you. You know more about me than anyone else, so don't tell me I didn't open up to you. I gave you all of me, Castle! I shared my darkest secrets with you, so you could write your books about them. All the while, I still know basically nothing about you."

"Oh no, you don't get to spin this on me. You made the decision not to seek immediate revenge for your mother's death for yourself, not for me, because it was the right thing to do, because you deserve to live and be happy. And yes, I wanted you to share that with me, and I've never been hiding anything. Or if I did, then maybe that's because I only have to wait until Senator Bracken comes around once more, for you to start running towards the edge again and away from me. And now with this baby, you did it again. You ran away from me with my own baby."

Kate raised her eyebrows. "Oh, so now it's your baby again?"

"Well, what do you want me to call it?" Castle asked, his anger beginning to wane and to be replaced by exasperation.

"How about nobody's baby?" Kate suggested, the words tasting like acid in her mouth. "Because that's what it is. We never talked about having kids and why would we? After months we're still arguing about how sure we are of this relationship. Do you really think we could handle a baby, Rick?"

Castle met her gaze and he knew that their argument had just hit rock bottom. "Okay, I don't think we should continue this conversation like this. We should both calm down before we talk about our options."

"Actually, no. We don't need to talk about it at all because it's my body and my decision," Kate said, folding her arms almost protectively across said body.

Castle just stared at her. It certainly was an unusual experience for him, but he was at a loss for words because he couldn't believe that Kate would really deny him his right to weigh in on the decision what they would do about this life they had created together.

But before he got the chance to think of something, anything, there was a knock on the door. It was Ryan who looked honestly apologetic. "Guys, I'm so sorry, but we got something on the APB on the car. I called the others back in as well. I think this might be it."

As if from an invisible pull, Kate jerked out of her defensive position and within seconds switched from a vulnerable, private woman, who was faced with the possible ruins of her life, to a professional detective, who was entirely focused on doing her job. Only her eyes kept telling the truth.

When she passed Castle to get to the door and leave the kitchen, he reached for her arm to stop her. "Kate," was everything he said, asking her not to leave them like this, not to put her job ahead of them again.

"There are still terrorists sitting on a dirty bomb somewhere out there," she replied without looking at him.

"You have a precinct full of detectives and special agents. They can take care of it."

Castle was just as committed to seeing these cases through as she was. It wasn't just for fun anymore like when he had first started out. He really enjoyed the feeling of helping these people. But right now he only cared about the woman he loved and the feeling of having her slip through his fingers again.

Kate met his gaze now, her eyes a pool of unidentifiable emotion. "You see, this baby is only just a couple of weeks old and you're already asking me to change who I am."

Castle let go of her then and Kate joined the others, who stood in front of the plasma in the conference room and who all tried to look as if nothing had happened. Kate ignored them anyway.

"What do you got?"

"We found the car," Ryan explained quickly. "A patrol officer saw it and called it in. They haven't moved in yet because they're waiting for our call, but the car is parked on an empty lot and there's no one to be seen."

"Which probably means, they finally realized that a car like that is too flashy if the NYPD is looking for you, so they ditched it," Esposito added.

Kate sighed. She wasn't angry with the boys for interrupting her argument with Castle because nothing good would have come out of that anyway. But she really needed an arrest right now, and she had been hoping that they were about to give one to her.

"Guys, you told me you had something."

Esposito seemed to sympathize. "Yes, well, although they dumped the car, we have reason to believe that they are still in the area, so we looked for Arabic supermarkets that Chalid had delivered and that are nearby and cross-referenced that with Dr. Isles' findings."

"This is what we got." Ryan highlighted a building on the map on screen. "It's a warehouse that belonged to a factory that manufactured mechanical spare parts for military ships. They closed it because the entire compound was too old and full of mold and stuff."

"A place like that would account for the traces of heavy fuel oil and the stachybotrys chartarum spores on the bodies," Maura confirmed.

"And Chalid would have passed this factory on his way from one supermarket to the other. So he would have known that the compound was empty," Esposito added.

Kate nodded. Perhaps she would get to make that arrest, after all. "Let's give it a shot."

Everybody started moving immediately, all very eager to close this case.

Without really looking at him, Kate said, "I think you should sit this one out, Castle." Perhaps it wasn't fair, but right now she just couldn't focus when he was around.

"Yeah, you're staying, too, Maura," Jane followed her lead.

"Actually, I think I will go back to the morgue and see if Dr. Parish would like some help with Dr. Byrne's autopsy," Maura decided.

Castle shrugged. "Fine, if nobody wants me, then I'll help you get a cab or something."

Glad that he wasn't making much of a scene, Kate led her bunch of detectives and special agents out of the precinct without looking back.

* * *

A/N: So please don't hate me for how Castle found out, but you know that with Caskett things never work out without a little drama ;)


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